320 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 
about Paris embraced extinct species was announced to the 
Institute by Cuvier in January, 1796; and thereafter he con- 
tinued for a quarter of a century to devote much attention 
to the systematic study of collections made in that district. 
These observations were, however, shared with other labors 
upon comparative anatomy and zodlogy, which indicates the 
prodigious industry for which he was notable. In 1812- 
1813 he published a monumental work, profusely illustrated, 
under the title Ossemens Fossiles. This standard publication 
entitles him to recognition as the founder of vertebrate 
paleontology. 
In examining the records of fossil life, Cuvier and others 
saw that the evidence indicated a succession of animal popu- 
lations that had become extinct, and also that myriads of new 
forms of life appeared in the rocks of succeeding ages. Here 
Cuvier, who believed that species were fixed and unalterable, 
was confronted with a puzzling problem. In attempting to 
account for the extinction of life, and what seemed to him 
the creation of new forms, he could see no way out consistent 
with his theoretical views except to assume that the earth 
had periodically been the scene of great catastrophes, of 
which the Mosaic deluge was the most recent, but possibly 
not the last. He supposed that these cataclysms of nature 
resulted in the extinction of all life, and that after each catas- 
trophe the salubrious condition of the earth was restored, 
and that it was re-peopled by anew creation of living beings. 
This conception, known as the theory of catastrophism, 
was an obstacle to the progress of science. It is to be re- 
gretted that Cuvier was not able to accept the views of his 
illustrious contemporary Lamarck, who believed that the 
variations in fossil life, as well as those of living forms, were 
owing to gradual transformations. 
Lamarck Founds Invertebrate Palezontology.—The credit 
of founding the science of paleontology does not belong 
