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famil}^ and received his early education at the Military School of 

 .Beaumont- en- Auge. On the dissolution of this establishment at 

 the Revolution, he was sent to Paris to complete his education at 

 the " Ecole du Genie, Mathematiques et Dessin," and was exempted 

 from the conscription of 1798 by reason of an accident in the right 

 arm followed by partial anchylosis. He accordingly remained in 

 Paris, occasionally attending lectures on the Natural Sciences, and 

 studying painting in the Drawing Academy of Vincent. He had 

 attained the age of twenty-seven, still undecided as to a profession, 

 when, having listened to an eloquent lecture by Cuvier, at the Col- 

 lege of France, M. de Blainville left the theatre with a determina- 

 tion to pursue the science of Comparative Anatomy. For this pur- 

 pose, he, by the advice of M. Dumeril, entered himself as a student 

 in the School of Medicine ; and after devoting three years to the 

 usual studies, took his degree as Doctor of Medicine in 1808; the 

 subject of his inaugural dissertation being founded on some experi- 

 ments on the influence of the eighth pair of Nerves in Respiration. 



The ardour of M. de Blainville in the pursuit of what had now 

 become his absorbing science, and his skill as a draughtsman, pro- 

 cured for him the especial attention of Baron Cuvier, who, after 

 employing him as a practical anatomist and artist at a salary of 

 2000 francs per annum, confided to him the delivery of a part of 

 his Course of Lectures on Zoology, at the College of France ; and 

 he soon afterwards obtained, by a successful concours^ the Chair of 

 Zoology and Physiology at the Faculty of Sciences, on which occa- 

 sion he defended his well-known Thesis ' On the Natural Affinities 

 of the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus.^ 



At the restoration of Louis XVIII. the opportunity presented 

 itself to M. de Blainville, through his family connexions and friends, 

 of obtaining office in the administration of the newly-established 

 legitimate government, to the principles of which M. de Blainville 

 was sincerely attached. But he resisted the temptation, and re- 

 mained faithful lO his scientific pursuits. He took advantage of the 

 peace to visit the Museums of England in 1816, and made many 

 drawings of rare Mollusca in the British Museum, and of anatomical 

 specimens in that of the Royal College of Surgeons. Several 

 Memoirs inserted in the Bulletin of the Philomathic Society testify 

 to the ardour with which he availed himself of his short sojourn in 

 this country ; and he soon after collected and methodized his re- 

 searches into the organization of the invertebrate animals in the 

 form of two extensive Articles in the ' Dictionaire d'Histoire Natu- 

 relle,' afterwards published as distinct works, one entitled ' Manuel 

 de Malacologie,' the other ' Manuel d'Actinologie.' A vast number, 

 upwards of 180, Memoirs in the 'Bulletin de la Societe Philoma- 

 thique,' the 'Journal de Physique,' the « Annales' and ' Memoires 

 du Museum,' attest M. de Blainville's active researches in all 

 branches of Zoology. He published in 1822 one volume of a 

 Course of Lectures ' On the Organization of Animals, or Principles 

 of Comparative Anatomy,' a work which was never completed. 



M. de Blainville was elected a member of the Academy of Sci- 



