SI i eer 
5 Paleontological Discovery. 339. 
les Ossemens Fossiles,” in four volumes, appeared in 1812-13. 
Of this work, it is but just to say that it could only have been 
written by aman of genius, profound knowledge, the greatest 
industry, and with the most favorable opportunities. 
he introduction to this work was the famous “ Discourse 
on the Revolutions of the Surface of the Globe,” which has 
perhaps been as widely read as any other scientific essay. The 
discovery of fossil bones in the gypsum quarries of Paris, by 
the workmen, who considered them human remains; the care- 
ful study of these relics by Cuvier, and his restorations from 
them of strange beasts that had lived long before, is a story 
with which you are all familiar. Cuvier was the first to prove 
that the earth had been inhabited by a succession of different 
series of animals, and he believed that those of each period 
were peculiar to the age in which they lived. 
In looking over his work after a lapse of three-quarters of a 
century, we can now see that Cuvier was wrong on some 
ares to admit the evidence brought — 
guished colleagues against the permanence oi species, and u 
all his great 5 a to pe Sa the doctrine of evolution, 
then first proposed. COuvier’s definition of a species, the domi- 
nant one for half a century, was as follows: “A species 
comprehends all the individuals which descend from each 
other, or from a common parentage, and those which resemble 
bears his name; and yet, although founded in truth, 
and useful within certain limits, it would certainly lead to 
serious error if applied widely in the way he proposed. 
is Discourse, he sums this law as follows: “A claw, a 
Separately considered, enables us to discover the description of ° 
us, commencing our investigation by a careful survey of any 
one bone by itself, a person who is sufficiently master of the 
AM. Jour, Sc1.—Turrp Series, Vou. XVIII, No. 107,__Nov., 1879. 
; 99 | 
