230 



DISCOVERIES OF CUTIER. 



nus and species of unknown animals, found in the gypsum quarries 

 near Paris : — " When the sight of some bones of the bear and the 

 elephant, twelve years ago, inspired me with the idea of applying the 

 general laws of comparative anatomy, to the reconstruction and the 

 discovery of fossil species ; when I began to perceive that these spe- 

 cies were not perfectly represented by those of our day, which re- 

 sembled them the most ; — I did not suspect that I was every day 

 treading upon a soil, filled with remains more extraordinary than any 

 that I had yet seen ; nor that I was destined to bring to light whole 

 genera of animals unknown to the present world, and buried for in- 

 calculable ages at vast depths under the earth. It was to M. Veurin 

 that I owe the first indications of these bones furnished by our quar- 

 ries : some fragments which he brought me one day, having struck 

 me with astonishment, 1 made enquiries respecting the persons to 

 whom this industrious collector had sent any formerly : what I saw 

 in these collections served to excite my hopes and increase my cu- 

 riosity. Causing search to be made at that time for such bones in 

 all quarries, and offering rewards to arouse the attention of the work- 

 men, I collected a greater number than any person who had pre- 

 ceded me. After some years I was sufficiently rich in materials to 

 have nothing further to desire ; but it was otherwise with respect to 

 their arrangement and the construction of the skeletons, which alone 

 could conduct me to a just knowledge of the species. From the 

 first moment, 1 perceived that there were many different species in 

 our quarries ; and soon afterwards, that they belonged to various ge- 

 nera, and that the species of the different genera were often of the 

 same size ; so that the size alone rather confused than assisted my ar- 

 rangement. I was in the situation of a man who had given to him, 

 pele mele, the mutilated and incomplete fragments of a hundred 

 skeletons, belonging to twenty sorts of animals, and it was required 

 that each bone should be joined to that which it belonged to. It was 

 a resurrection in miniature ; but the immutable laws prescribed to liv- 

 ing beings were my directors.* At the voice of comparative anato- 

 my, each bone, each fragment, regained its place. I have no ex- 



* In the following passage Ciivier has more fully explained what he denomi- 

 nates " the immutable laws prescribed to living beings:" — " Every organized be- 

 ing forms a whole and entire system, of which all the parts mutually correspond 

 and co-operate, to produce the same definite action, by a reciprocal re-action; 

 none of these parts can change, without a change of the others also. Thus, if the 

 intestines of an animal are organized in a manner only to digest fresh flesh, iti^ 

 necessary that his jaws should be constructed to devour the prey, his claws tOr 

 seize and tear it, his teeth to divide the flesh, and the whole system of his organs 

 of motion to follow and overtake it, and of his organs of sense, to perceive it at 

 a distance. It is necessary, also, that he should have seated in his brain the in- 

 stinct to hide himself and spread snares for his victim: such are the general con- 

 ditions of a carnivorous regimen : every carnivorous animal must infallibly 

 unite them, — without them the species coiild not subsist. But, under these gen- 

 eral conditions, there are particular ones with respect to the size of the species, 

 and the abode of the prey, for which each animal is disposed. 



