150 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 
From the standpoint of a sincere admirer, Mrs. Lee 
writes of his generosity and nobility of temperament, declar- 
ing that his career demonstrated that his mind was great 
and free from beth envy and smallness. 
Some Shortcomings.— Nevertheless, there are certain 
things in the life of Cuvier that we wish might not have been. 
His break with his old friends Lamarck and Saint-Hilaire 
seems to show a domination of qualities that were not gen- 
erous and kindly; those observations of Lamarck showing a 
much profounder insight than any of which he himself was 
the author were laughed to scorn. His famous controversy 
with Saint-Hilaire marks a historical moment that will be 
dealt with in the chapter on Evolution. 
George Bancroft, the American historian, met him during 
a visit to Paris in 1827. He speaks of his magnificent eyes 
and his fine appearance, but on the whole Cuvier seems to 
have impressed Bancroft as a disagreeable man. 
Some of his shortcomings that served to retard the prog- 
ress of science have been mentioned. Still, with all his faults, 
he dominated zoological science at the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century, and so powerful was his influence and so un- 
disputed was his authority among the French people that 
the rising young men in natural science sided with Cuvier 
even when he was wrong. It is anoteworthy fact that France, 
under the influence of the traditions of Cuvier, was the last 
country slowly and reluctantly to harbor as true the ideas 
regarding the evolution of animal life. 
CUVIER’S SUCCESSORS 
While Cuvier’s theoretical conclusions exercised a retard- 
ing influence upon the progress of biology, his practical 
studies more than compensated for this. It has been pointed 
out how his type-theory led to the reform of the Linnean 
