Cuvier, Georges

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

ku-ve-a', Georges (1769-1832), a noted French scientist. He was educated at Stuttgart. After a term of service as a tutor in Normandy, he was invited in 1795 to Paris to a position from which he was soon transferred to a chair of zoology in the Garden of Plants. Here he began at once what was destined to become the largest natural history collection in Europe. Cuvier was honored with membership in the scientific societies of France, and became a leading spirit. Under Napoleon he was instrumental in the founding of academies in newly attached territory. From this time on, save during the reign of Charles X, he held high office. He was appointed minister of the interior just before his death. At his death he was considered the most eminent naturalist in Europe. Cuvier's service to science is a classification of animals which is followed by scientists to the present day. In his Animal Kingdom, he classified all animals according to the arrangement of their bones or hard parts, rather than according to their appearance or size. His chief headings were Vertebrates, Articulates, Mollusks, and Radiates. His works are a mine of information in natural history, and "afford the strongest arguments in favor of the theory of a progressive series of animals, advancing from the most simple to the most complex forms of organizations." The chalk basin in which Paris is situated supplied Cuvier with a variety of interesting fossils. He is regarded as the father of the study of paleontology, or the science of fossil life. He was prominent, too, in the science of comparative anatomy. He taught, for instance, that the flipper of a seal, the wing of a bat, the wing of a bird, the fore-leg of a horse, and the arm of a man are one and the same organ modified by circumstances. He wrote scientific papers innumerable. His published works reached many volumes.