Cuvier

Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier was born in 1769 at Montbéliard, a small town not far from Basel, which, although though entirely French, belonged at that time to the Duchy of Wurttemberg. He came from a French Huguenot family, which had at one time sought refuge from religious persecution at home; his father, however, had been an officer in French service, but in his old age had returned to his native town, where he married and lived on a small pension given him by the French Government. At an early age young Georges displayed brilliant intellectual gifts; he passed through the local school with honours and during his time there became acquainted with Buffon's writings, which he diligently studied. The poverty of his family, however, threatened to prevent him from continuing his education, when a chance opportunity procured him free entry into the Karlsschule at Stuttgart. This one-time famous educational establishment was originally a military academy, but had been extended by the reigning Duke Karl into a college providing for the training of Civil Service officials as well. The school was renowned for its excellent staff of teachers and at the same time feared for the severe military discipline exercised there under the personal supervision of the despotic Prince. Schiller, the German poet of liberty, had been one of its first pupils, but had escaped from the insufferable constraint by flight, and others had followed his example. Cuvier, on the other hand, who was not only naturally gifted, but also possessed a sense of discipline, got on well there; although upon first entering the academy he had no knowledge of German, he soon became one of the best pupils in the class for the science of State finances, which he entered because natural science was most widely taught there for the benefit of aspiring argicultural and forestry employees. The teacher of biology here was Karl Friedrich Kielmayer (1765-1844), one of the most extraordinary of German biologists, afterwards professor at Tübingen, a man who allowed none of the courses of lectures that he gave during a long life to be printed, though they were highly thought of, copies of them being made and eagerly studied. He appears to have been a speculative natural scientist, who had been influenced by Herder's ideas of a common primal type for all living creatures and their several organs, and who consequently strongly recommended the study of comparative anatomy. Cuvier received a thorough 332grounding at his hands and gained from him many valuable ideas, which indeed he gratefully acknowledged throughout his life. Having successfully passed out of the school at the age of eighteen he returned home; he could not afford to work his way up as an unsalaried official in the Civil Service, so he had to accept the post of tutor in a Protestant family in Normandy. Here on the Channel coast he found an entirely new animal world, which he at once began to study with keen interest; in his spare time he dissected all the fishes he came across and compared their structure, and with even greater enthusiasm took up the study of the innumerable lower animal forms that the ebb tide left stranded on the shore — molluscs, worms, and starfish. In Linnæus's Systema Naturœ which was the examination text-book of the time, these creatures were not thoroughly dealt with; even Aristotle had at one time displayed greater interest in marine animals, and in his writings Cuvier found not only records of their life, but also ideas suggesting ways of comparing their different structure. He drew everything that he studied, for he had learnt to be a clever draughtsman. Some of these pictures, which were submitted through an aquaintance to Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, then newly-elected professor in Paris, proved of momentous importance for Cuvier's future. He was summoned to Paris and within a short time was appointed professor of comparative anatomy, although he had never dissected a human body — an appointment similar to that of Geoffroy and Lamarck the year before. Thus his fortune was made and new promotions and honours followed in rapid succession, more than space allows us to enumerate. Cuvier stood especially high in Napoleon's favour; contemporary with the Emperor in regard both to the year of his birth and to the period when he first became eminent, he possessed something of the latter's genius for organization; his energy was inexhaustible, he could discharge many duties at the same time without neglecting a single detail, he was full of ideas touching problems of organization, and he also possessed a theoretical knowledge of statecraft which he had acquired during his school period at Stuttgart. Thus he became "inspecteur général" in the department of education and carried out his duties in that post, at the same time attending to his professorship and his science, so successfully that under his leadership the educational system in France was thoroughly reformed and a number of new universities founded, both in France and in its extensive subject countries, Italy and Holland. When Napoleon fell, Cuvier became an indispensable authority in the spheres of science and education; in spite of the Catholic reaction that succeeded the Bourbon's regime, he, a Protestant, was allowed to retain his appointments and received still further promotions, becoming a baron and minister for Protestant ecclesiastical affairs. Throughout this period he was wise enough to maintain his political independence, and after the July revolution he rose still higher, becoming a peer of France. 333By that time, however, his days were numbered; he died of cholera during the first epidemic that ravaged Europe, in 1832. His wife survived him, but all his children had died before him.