150 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 
he colored the plates in Buffon’s Natural History from de- 
scriptions in the text. 
It was at first contemplated by his family that he should 
prepare for theology, but failing, through the unfairness of 
one of his teachers, to get an appointment to the theological 
seminary, his education was continued in other directions. 
He was befriended by the sister of the Duke of Wiirttemberg, 
who sent him as a pensioner to the famous Carolinian acad- 
emy at Stuttgart. There he showed great application, and 
with the wonderful memory with which he was endowed, he 
took high rank as a student. Here he met Kielmeyer, a 
young instructor only four years older than himself, who 
shared his taste for natural history and, besides this, intro- 
duced hin to anatomy. In after-years Cuvier acknowledged 
the assistance of Kiclmever in determining his future work 
and in teaching him te dissect. 
Life at the Seashore.--In 1788 the resources of his 
family, which had always heen slender, became further re- 
duced by the inability of the government to pay his father’s 
retiring stipend. As the way did not open for employ- 
ment in other directions, young Cuvier took the post of in- 
structor of the only son in the family of Count d’Héricy, 
and went with the family to the sea-coast in Normandy, 
near Caen. For six years (1788-1794) he lived in this noble 
family, with much time at his disposal. For Cuvier this 
period, from the age of ninetcen to twenty-five, was one of 
constant research and reflection. 
While Paris was disrupted by the reign of terror, Cuvier, 
who, although of French descent, regarded himself as a Ger- 
man, was quictly carrying on his researches into the strucure 
of the life at the seaside. These years of diligent study and 
freedom from distractions fixed his destiny. Here at the 
sea-coast, without the assistance of books and the stimulus 
of intercourse with other naturalists, he was drawn directly 
