304 Documents in Commemoration of Baron Cuvier. 



often since observed that the exercise of his professorship, by giving 

 activity to his lungs, restored him to health. Being appointed pro- 

 fessor of natural history at the central school of the Pantheon, he 

 dignified that station by the publication of his Tableau du Regne Ani- 

 mal, which, notwithstanding its elementary appearance, has served as 

 the basis of all subsequent labors in classifications of zoology. He 

 published, a short time after, his JLegons fVanatomie com-paree (five 

 volumes in 8vo.) which were afterwards designated by the Institute 

 as having merited the grand decennial prize for the work which had 

 contributed most to the advancement of knowledge in relation to 

 the natural sciences. This work, abridged from his course, was ed- 

 ited under his inspection, at first, by his friend Dameril, and then, 

 (the last three volumes) by his relative, M. Duvernoy. At the same 

 period he published a series of memoirs on the anatomy of the mol- 

 lusca, and then entered upon a detailed examination of the fossil 

 relics of mammiferous animals. He devoted his attention particularly 

 to the numerous fossils of the environs of Paris, and was assisted in 

 the geological part of his labor by his friend Alexander Brongniart. 

 The sagacity and precision which he bestowed in the determination 

 of fossil bones, erected his study into a new science, which has 

 thrown a brilliant light upon geology, and given it a far more philo- 

 sophical direction. A multitude of learned works and profound 

 memoirs published since that time by various naturalists, have de- 

 monstrated the prodigious influence which the labors of Cuvier have 

 exercised over the study of geology, of the animal kingdom, and 

 even on that of vegetable fossils. M. Cuvier refreshed himself in 

 the intervals of those extended works, by special researches, which 

 would have been sufficient to add lustre to any other man ; — such 

 are his beautiful memoirs on the chaunt of birds, on crocodiles, and 

 on a great number of the diversified topics of zoology ; such are, 

 also, his description of the living animals of the menagerie. Sec. On 

 . all subjects, even of the minutest detail, we observe that clear, lumin- 

 ous and methodical spirit and that sagacity which so remarkably 

 characterized him. 



He perceived the necessity of arranging the totality of the knowl- 

 edge he had acquired on these subjects, and presented the public in 

 1817, with a general view of zoological classification. This work, en- 

 titled Le Regne Animal distrihtue d'apres son organization (4 vols. 

 Svo,) became immediately the basis of all zoological study. In most 

 of the schools, the lectures, collections and researches were subjected 



