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CUVIER, GEORGES LEOPOLD CHRETIEN FRED...
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See also:CUVIER, GEORGES See also:LEOPOLD CHRETIEN See also:FREDERIC DAGOBERT, See also:BARON (1769-1832) , See also:French naturalist, was See also:born on the 23rd of See also:August 1769 at See also:Montbeliard, and was the son of a retired officer on See also:half-pay belonging to a See also:Protestant See also:family which had emigrated from the See also:Jura in consequence of religious persecution. He See also:early showed a See also:bent towards the investigation of natural phenomena, and was noted for his studious habits and marvellous memory. After spending four years at the See also:Academy of See also:Stuttgart, he accepted the position of See also:tutor in the family of the See also:Comte d'Hericy, who was in the See also:habit of spending the summer near See also:Fecamp. It thus came about that he made the acquaintance of the agriculturist, A. H. Tessier, who was then living at Fecamp, and who wrote strongly in favour of his protege to his See also:friends in Paris—with the result that Cuvier, after corresponding with the well-known naturalist E. See also:Geoffroy See also:Saint-Hilaire, was appointed in 1795 assistant to the See also:professor of See also:comparative See also:anatomy at the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. The See also:National See also:Institute was founded in the same See also:year and he was elected a member. In 1796 he began to lecture at the Ecole Centrale du See also:Pantheon, and at the opening of the National Institute in See also:April, he read his first palaeontological See also:paper, which was subsequently published in 1800 under the See also:title Memoires sur See also:les especes d'elephants vivants et fossiles. In 1798 was published his first See also:separate See also:work, the Tableau elementaire de l'histoire naturelle See also:des animaux, which was an abridgment of his course of lectures at the 1 See also:cole du Pantheon, and may be regarded as the See also:foundation and first and See also:general statement of his natural See also:classification of the See also:animal See also:kingdom. In 1799 he succeeded L. J. M. See also:Daubenton as professor of natural See also:history in the See also:College de See also:France, and in the following year he published the Lecons d'anatomie comparee, a classical work, in the See also:production of which he was assisted by A. M. C. Dumeril in the first two volumes, and by G. L. Duvernoy in three later ones. In 1802 Cuvier became titular professor at the Jardin des Plantes; and in the same year he was appointed See also:commissary of the Institute to accompany the inspectors-general of public instruction. In this latter capacity he visited the See also:south of France; but he was in the early See also:part of 1803 chosen perpetual secretary of the National Institute in the See also:department of the See also:physical and natural sciences, and he consequently abandoned the See also:appointment just mentioned and returned to See also:Paris. He now devoted himself more especially to three lines of inquiry—one dealing with the structure and classification of the See also:mollusca, the second with the comparative anatomy and systematic arrangement of the fishes, and the third with fossil mammals and See also:reptiles primarily, and secondarily with the See also:osteology of living forms belonging to the same See also:groups. His papers on the mollusca began as early as 1792, but most of his See also:memoirs on this See also:branch were published in the Annales du museum between 1802 and 1815; they were subsequently collected as Memoires pour servir a l'histoire el d l'anatomie des mollusques, published in one See also:volume at Paris in 1817. In the department of fishes, Cuvier's researches, begun in 18o1, finally culminated in the publication of the Histoire naturelle des poissons, which contained descriptions of 5000 See also:species of fishes, and was the See also:joint production of Cuvier and A. See also:Valenciennes, its publication (so far as the former was concerned) extending over the years 1828--1831. The department of palaeontology dealing with the See also:Mammalia may be said to have been. essentially created and established by Cuvier. In this region of investigation he published a See also:long See also:list of memoirs, partly See also:relating to the bones of See also:extinct animals, and partly detailing the results of observations on the skeletons of living animals specially examined with a view of throwing See also:light upon the structure and See also:affinities of the fossil forms. In the second See also:category must be placed a number of papers relating to the osteology of the See also:Rhinoceros Indicus, the See also:tapir, Hyrax Capensis, the See also:hippopotamus, the sloths, the manatee, &c. In the former category must be classed an even greater number of memoirs, dealing with the extinct mammals of the See also:Eocene beds of Montmartre, the fossil species of hippopotamus, the Didelphys gypsorum, the Megalonyx, the Megatherium, the See also:cave-hyaena, the extinct species of rhinoceros, the cave-See also:bear, the See also:mastodon, the extinct species of See also:elephant, fossil species of manatee and See also:seals, fossil forms of crocodilians, chelonians, fishes, birds, &c. The results of Cuvier's See also:principal palaeontological and See also:geological investigations were ultimately given to the See also:world in the See also:form of two separate See also:works. One of these is the celebrated Recherches sur les ossements fossiles de quadrupedes, published in Paris in 1812, with subsequent See also:editions in 1821 and 1825; and the other is his Discours sur les revolutions de la See also:surface du globe, published in Paris in 1825. But none of his works attained a higher reputation than his Regne animal distribue d'apres son organisation, the first edition of which appeared in four See also:octavo volumes in 181.7, and the second in five volumes in 1829-183o. In this classical work Cuvier embodied the results of the whole of his previous researches on the structure of living and fossil animals. The whole of the work was his own, with the exception of the Insecta, in which he was assisted by his friend P. A. See also:Latreille. Apart from his own See also:original investigations in See also:zoology and palaeontology Cuvier carried out a vast amount of work as perpetual secretary of the National Institute, and as an See also:official connected with public See also:education generally; and much of this work appeared ultimately in a published form. Thus, in i8o8 he was placed by See also:Napoleon upon the See also:council of the Imperial University, and in this capacity he presided (in the years 18og,
1811 and 1813) over commissions charged to examine the See also:state of the higher educational establishments in the districts beyond the See also:Alps and the See also:Rhine which had been annexed to France, and to See also:report upon the means by which these could be affiliated with the central university. Three separate reports on this subject were published by him. In his capacity, again, of perpetual secretary of the Institute, he not only prepared a number of doges historiques on deceased members of the Academy of Sciences, but he was the author of a number of reports on the history of the physical and natural sciences, the most important of these being the Rapport historique sur le progres des sciences physiques depuis 1789, published in 1810. See also:Prior to the fall of Napoleon (1814) he had been admitted to the council of state, and his .position remained unaffected by the restoration of the Bourbons. He was elected See also:chancellor of the university, in which capacity he acted as See also:interim See also:president of the council of public instruction, whilst he also, as a Lutheran, superintended the See also:faculty of Protestant See also:theology. In 1819 he was appointed president of the See also:committee of the interior, and retained the See also:office until his See also:death. In 1826 he was made See also:grand officer of the See also:Legion of See also:Honour; and in 1831 he was raised by See also: See also:Flourens, Eloge historique de G. Cuvier, published as an introduction to the Eloges historiques of Cuvier; Histoire des travaux de Georges Cuvier (3rd ed., Paris, 1858) ; A. P. de See also:Candolle, " Mort de G. Cuvier," Bibliotheque universelle (1832, 59, p. 442); C. L. Laurillard, " Cuvier," Biographie universelle, supp. vol. 61 (1836) ; Sarah See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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