120 HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM. 



and described in precise and picturesque lan- 

 guage, the varieties of animated nature. Neverthe- 

 less the greater part of the animals of the old and 

 new world were imperfectly known, for want 

 of opportunities of comparing them, and of ob- 

 serving the differences produced by age and other 

 circumstances in the same species. 



To the collections of the King's Garden, and to 

 the works of which they facilitated the execution, 

 are owing the wider range and greater exact- 

 ness of zoology at the present day. The history 

 of quadrupeds by Buffon and Daubenton, that of 

 birds by Buffon and Montbeliard, and that of the 

 cetaceous animals and fishes by M. de Lacepede, 

 made known with accuracy the species which 

 Linnaeus had only indicated, and many others 

 whose existence he had not suspected. The gal- 

 leries of the Museum furnished M. de Lamarck 

 with materials for his history of invertebrated 

 animals, and enabled M. Latreille to perfect his 

 great work on insects. M. Cuvier soon after ac- 

 complished in favour of zoology what M. de Jus- 

 sieu had done for botany, by founding, upon 

 natural relations and invariable characters, a clas- 

 sification now generally adopted. 



The three chairs of zoology are still occupied 

 by the professors first appointed to fill them, and 

 the number of their pupils is yearly increasing, 



