54o DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



mals with the remains found in a fossil state, 

 belonging to races that are extinct, but which 

 existed at separate and very remote periods. But 

 the plan of classing animals according to their 

 organization was attended with insuperable dif- 

 ficulties, as details were wanting to resolve the 

 most important questions, and as the labours of 

 several anatomists only made more evident the 

 necessity of a complete system of comparative 

 anatomy. 



Anatomy was for the fust time methodically 

 applied to zoology in the King's Garden ; and 

 the association of the anatomical works of Dau- 

 benton with the general views and descriptions 

 of Buff on, gave celebrity to their joint labours. 

 It was however confined to quadrupeds, and il- 

 lustrated only such of them as Daubenton had 

 been enabled to dissect with the assistance of 

 Mertrud. 



A new career was opened for the study of the 

 natural sciences when, at the organization of the 

 Museum, a chair was instituted for the anatomy 

 of animals. Mertrud, who had been thirty years 

 demonstrator of anatomy in the King's Garden, 

 was named to fill it ; but as his declining age did 

 not permit him to deliver his lectures, M. Cuvier, 

 at his request, was appointed his substitute in 

 i 79 5. 



