[Illustration: Cuvier]
Cuvier, the great naturalist, paid the debt of nature in May last,
after a life devoted to science with an unwearied application and a
success exceeded by none in modern times. He was born at Montbelliard
in 1769, a year which gave to so many remarkable men--a Napoleon--a
Chateaubriand--a Wellington--a Humboldt, &c. and his first discoveries
were on the Mollusca, and shook to its base the zoological
classification which then universally prevailed.
Invited to Paris to fill the place of Professor of Comparative Anatomy
at the _Jardin des Plantes_, his lectures speedily drew crowds around
him, attracted by his popular eloquence and lucid arrangement. His
next work, _Lecons d'Anatomie Comparee_, 1805, was rewarded by the
Institute with the decennial prize for the work which had contributed
the most to our knowledge of the Natural Sciences during that period.
At the same period he published a series of Memoirs on the Anatomy of
the Mollusca, and devoted his attention to a detailed examination
of the fossil remains of the bones of mammiferous animals; he
particularly examined the numerous fossils in the environs of Paris,
assisted in the geological part of his task by his friend M. A.
Brogniart. The sagacity and accuracy which M. Cuvier displayed in the
examination of fossil bones, raised this branch of inquiry to the
dignity of a perfectly new science, which has thrown a powerful light
on geology, and directed it into a more philosophical route. A
number of works and of elaborate memoirs published since by various
naturalists, have shown the prodigious influence which the labours of
Cuvier have exercised on the study of geology, of the animal kingdom,
and even of fossil botany. M. Cuvier amused himself during these
laborious works by particular researches which would alone have been
sufficient to have distinguished any other man, such as his five
Memoirs on the Voice of Birds, on Crocodiles, and on numerous subjects
of zoology; such also as his descriptions of the living animals in
the menagerie, &c. In all his works, even to the minutest details,
we discover the same luminous, clear, and methodical mind, and the
sagacity which characterized him. Feeling the want of a work
which should present a general view of his ideas on zoological
classification, he published in 1817 his work entitled _Le Regne
Animal distribue d'après son Organisation_, in 4 vols, 8vo. which
speedily became the text-book of all zoological students. When
employed on this work he felt how far in arrear of the other branches
of zoology was that which respects the class of fish, and saw how much
difficulty had accumulated in it, as well from our ignorance of the
anatomy of these animals, and the impossibility of determining with
precision the laws of their comparative organization, as from the want
of large collections, and perhaps also from the too artificial spirit
which had hitherto prevailed in ichthyology. He employed his influence
to form a collection in the Paris Museum of specimens of fish from all
parts of the world, and was so successful in his endeavours that the
number of specimens which at first scarcely amounted to 1,000, in a
few years amounted to 6,000. Of these he dissected a large portion
with a care hitherto unknown, having the advantage of an able
associate in the study of the details in M. Valenciennes; he was thus
enabled in a period of time that may be called short, looking to the
extent of the results, to collect the materials of his great _Histoire
Naturelle des Poissons_, of which eight volumes have appeared, with
their appropriate plates, and for the continuation of which we have to
look to his laborious assistant. The recent embarrassment among the
Paris publishers having occasioned a stoppage in the progress of this
work, M. Cuvier availed himself of this (as the part prepared for the
press was already in advance of the printer) to make preparations
for republishing his _Lecons d'Anotomie Comparee_, of which a second
edition had been long anxiously called for. This design, however, he
was not permitted to complete; but it is to be hoped that we shall not
be long deprived of the edition he had contemplated, and that it will
be accompanied with those beautiful and accurate plates on which he
had bestowed so much pains, and in the execution of which he himself
excelled; for he was a skilful draftsman, and seized external forms
with rapidity and accuracy, and possessed the art of representing
in his drawings the forms of organic tissues in a style peculiar to
himself. His last course of lectures, on the History of the Natural
Sciences, and on the Philosophy of Natural History, delivered at the
College of France, is now publishing in livraisons, and will extend
to three or four vols, 8vo. This work, however, we believe, has been
published without his consent or revision. His memory was prodigious,
and he scarcely knew what it was to forget anything. Although his
great powers were more particularly devoted to natural history, no
part of science was a stranger to him, and his taste for literature
and works of imagination was particularly refined and elegant. In his
_Eloges_ of illustrious men, delivered in his capacity of perpetual
secretary of the Academy of Sciences, he always displays the utmost
impartiality and love of truth; he never debased the dignity
of science by any love of intrigue, and displayed the utmost
disinterestedness in his efforts to promote science. The qualities
of his heart were not less estimable than those of his head, and he
possessed the happy art of inspiring his friends with an unalterable
attachment. His conversation was varied and animated, adapted by turns
to every subject, and he may truly be said to have been the grace and
ornament of society. We must not forget the great services he rendered
to public education as head of the University; his Report on the
State of Primary Education in Holland is a lasting monument of his
solicitude for the education of the people, and all those who have
observed his conduct with regard to the higher branches of education,
know how constantly his influence was directed to favour their
progress and to remove obstacles. In other departments of the civil
service into which he was successively called, as Master of Requests,
Counsellor of State, President of the Section of the Interior,
Director of Protestant Worship, (for he was an enlightened and liberal
Protestant, and watched over the interests of his co-religionists with
constant solicitude,) and at last as a Peer of France--in all these he
displayed the same superiority of talent. The office of Censor of the
Press, which was offered to him, he, to his eternal honour, refused.
Such was the man whose loss the world has now to deplore: but the mind
that traced her age and history--in the wrecks of ages dug from her
bosom--will live for ever in his works to enlighten and instruct
mankind.--_Foreign Quarterly Review._
Cuvier is said to have died of a paralytic affection of the
oesophagus. His body was examined by several eminent pathologists:
his brain is stated to have presented a mass of extraordinary volume,
weighing three pounds thirteen and a half ounces; a fact which will
be treasured up by contemporary phrenologists as evidence of Cuvier's
great intellectual capabilities.
[Cuvier was Professor of Geology in the College of France. The chair,
vacant by his death, has just been filled by the appointment of
M. Elie Beaumont, celebrated for his investigation of mountain
formations.]
* * * * *