60 MEMOIRS OF 



he had all his fame to make, so far from being 

 annoyed at the endeavours of others, he was the 

 first to encourage them, to give them his honour- 

 able suffrage, and to receive as friends those who 

 ventured into his province, in order to settle a 

 doubtful point of science. 



The mode of circulation in the Annelides was 

 not better determined than that of insects, and 

 M. Cuvier also turned his attention towards 

 them. It was in pursuing this enquiry that he 

 told anatomists, that the red colour of the liquid 

 contained in leeches does not in the least pro- 

 ceed from the blood which the animal has im- 

 bibed, but that it is their own blood which 

 circulates in four principal vessels. This im- 

 portant observation separated leeches, and ani- 

 mals analogous to them, from those with white 

 blood ; and caused Lamarck to give tlie class 

 to which they belong the distinct name of 

 Annelides. In M. Cuvier's great work on Com- 

 parative Anatomy, all the peculiarities belong- 

 ing to insects, and other articulated animals, 

 were afterwards given ; and as he carried his 

 labours into a wider expanse, he left their ex- 

 ternal forms and classification to others, and con- 

 fined himself solely to their internal structure. 



After thus noticing the earliest scientific la- 



