PART I. 



George Leopold Chretien Frederic Dagobert 

 CuviER was born at Montbeliard (departementduDoubs) 

 on the twenty-third of August, 1769. This town now be- 

 longs to France, but at that time formed a part of the king- 

 dom of Wiirtemberg. His family came originally from a 

 village of the J ura, which still bears the name of Cuvier^ 

 and settled at Montbeliard at the period of the Reformation. 

 The grandfather of the subject of the present biography 

 had two sons ; one became celebrated for his learning, and 

 the other, the father of George Cuvier, entered a Swiss 

 regiment then in the service of France. Having much 

 distinguished himself in his military duties, he was made 

 Chevalier de I'Ordre du Merite Militaire,* which among 

 the Protestants, was equal to the catholic Croix de St. 

 Louis ; and, after forty years service, he retired, with a 

 small pension, to Montbeliard, where he was afterwards 

 appointed commandant of the artillery in that town. At 

 fifty years of age he married a young lady, gifted with 

 much talent and feeling, by whom he had three sons. 

 The eldest died while his mother was pregnant with her 

 second son, which event preyed so much upon her health, 

 that her infant, George, came into the world w4th a con- 

 stitution so feeble, that his youth scarcely promised man- 

 liood. The cares of this excellent mother, during the ex- 

 treme delicacy of his health, left an impression on M. 

 Cuvier which was never effaced, even in his. latest years, 

 and amid the absorbing occupations of his active life. He 

 cherished every circumstance connected with her memory ; 

 he loved to recall her kindnesses, and to dwell upon objects, 

 however trifling, which reminded him of her. Among 

 other things, he delighted in being surrounded by the flow- 



* The impossibility of finding English words equivalent to French 

 technical terms, names of public functions, orders, &c. obliges me, in most 

 cases, to preserve the original phrase. 



