154 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 
lost his love for natural science. With him this was an 
absorbing passion, and it may be said that he ranks higher 
as a zoologist than as a legislator. 
Comprehensiveness of Mind.—Soon after his arrival in 
Paris he began to lecture upon comparative anatomy and to 
continue work ina most comprehensive way upon the subjects 
which he had cultivated at Caen. He saw everything ona 
large scale. This led to his making extensive studies of what- 
ever problems engaged his mind, and his studies were com- 
bined in such a manner as to give a broad view of the subject. 
Indeed, comprehensiveness of mind seems to have been 
the characteristic which most impressed those who were 
acquainted with him. Flourens says of him: “Ce qui ca- 
ractérise pariout M. Cuvier, Cest Pesprit vaste.’ His broad 
and comprehensive mind enabled him to map out on great 
lines the subject of comparative anatomy. His breadth was 
at times his undoing, for it must be confessed that when the 
details of the subject are considered, he was often inaccurate. 
This was possibly owing to the conditions under which he 
worked; having his mind diverted into many other chan- 
nels, never neglecting his state duties, it is reasonable to 
suppose that he lacked the necessary time to prove his ob- 
servations in anatomy, and we may in this way account for 
some of his inaccuracies. 
Besides being at fault in some of his comparative anat- 
omy, he adhered to a number of ideas that served to retard 
the progress of science. He was opposed to the ideas of his 
contemporary Lamarck, on the evolution of animals. He 
is remembered as the author of the dogma of catastrophism 
in geology. He adhered to the old notion of the pre-forma- 
tion of the embryo, and also to the theory of the sponta- 
neous origin of life. 
Founds Comparative Anatomy.—Regardless of this 
qualification, he was a great and distinguished student, and 
