LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



xcix 



from the first have acquired a taste for zoological studies, for the 

 pursuit of which he was placed in such advantageous circumstances 

 and guided by such an able instructor. 



Nor was he backward in taking advantage of his position. His 

 first contribution to science was made in his nineteenth year, when 

 he published the description of an American Bat (Nyctinomus brasi- 

 liensis) ; and at twenty-one he furnished the ' Dictionnaire Classique 

 d'Histoire Naturelle ' with an article, afterwards published in a 

 separate form under the title of ' Considerations generales sur la 

 Classe des Mammiferes ' — a work in which he thus early manifested 

 the strong tendency of his mind to the generalization of facts, which 

 he had doubtless acquired from his father's precepts and example. 



From this time his contributions to science were numerous and 

 varied ; but it is unnecessary, perhaps, to notice any in particular, 

 until we come to his first more important work, entitled 4 Histoire 

 generale et particuliere des Anomalies de POrganisation chezl'Homme 

 et les Animaux ; ou, Traite de Teratologic,' in three volumes, the 

 first of which was published in 1832, and the last in 1836. The 

 publication of this work, which may be regarded as an amplification 

 and extended demonstration of the views respecting monstrosities 

 entertained and already expressed by his father, led to the author's 

 election, at the early age of twenty-seven, into the Academy, where 

 he succeeded to the vacant seat of Latreille, in the section of 

 Zoology, on the 15th April, 1833. 



Previously to this, however, that is to say, in 1829, Isidore Geof- 

 froy, then only twenty-four, had already commenced his career as a 

 teacher, acting at first as an aid to his father, and selecting Ornitho- 

 logy as the subject of his lectures. In the following year he also 

 delivered an interesting course of lectures at the " Athenee," having 

 for their subject the fundamental relations of the species of animals 

 inter se and towards the external world. In 1837 he was appointed 

 his father's deputy at the Faculty of Sciences of Paris, a provisional 

 chair which he shortly afterwards quitted to proceed to Bordeaux, 

 where, under the title of " Dean," he undertook the organization of 

 the Faculty of Sciences established in that city in 1838. Having 

 fulfilled this mission, he returned to Paris, and was named Inspector 

 of the Academy ; and he also discharged the functions of Inspector- 

 General of the University in 1840, although the title itself does not 

 appear to have been actually bestowed upon him before 1844. These 

 offices he continued to occupy until he succeeded M. de Blainville in 

 the Zoological chair at the Faculty of Sciences in 1850. In addition, 

 however, to the responsible duties of his inspectorial office, he had 



