CUVIER, GEORGES CITICiTIEN TAOPOLD DAGOBERT, Baron, was b. Aug. 23, 1769, at 3Iompelgard, a t. then belonging to Wurtemberg, but now to France. His father was an officer in a Swiss regiment. Having made rapid progress in learning at the Miimpel gard gymnasium, C. entered, in 1784, the Karlsakademie at Stuttgart. Here, in the midst of various studies, he retained that predilection for natural history which he had displayed when only 12 years old. The restricted means of his parents, however, com pelled him, in 178S, to take a situation as private tutor in the family of comte d'Heri cy, who resided near Fecamp, in Normandy. Here C. lived for 6 years, quietly but ceaselessly pursuing his studies in natural history: An acquaintance accidentally formed between him and the abbe Tessier (noted as a writer on agriculture), was the cause of C.'s obtaining an introduction to Geoffroy St. Hilaire and other eminent Parisian savans. Startled by the novelty and comprehensiveness of his views on zool ogy, Geoffroy St. Hilaire urged him to come to Paris, which he (lid, and, in 1795, was appointed professor in the ecote centrale of the Pantheon. Soon after this appoint ment, C. was made assistant to Mertrud, the teacher in comparative anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes, and now he began to form that collection in natural history which ultimately became the largest in Europe. In 1796, he was made a member of the national institute; in 1800, he succeeded Daubenton in the college de France, and, in 1802, he was made perpetual secretary of the institute. He gradually rose in the esti mation of the emperor, and, in 1808, was commissioned to superintend the institution of academies in the new territories attached to France. Shortly before the fall of Napoleon, C. was admitted into the council of state. The restoration did not deprive him of his honors, but added to them; he was made chancellor of the university of Paris, and, heuceforward, received from time to time new rewards for his services to science. After a visit to England (1818), where he was received with great honors, he was, in 1819, admitted into the cabinet by Louis XVIII., and, in 1826, was made grand officer of the legion of honor; but his decided opposition to the royal measures for restricting the freedom of the press, lost him the favor of Charles X. Under Louis Philippe, he was made a peer of France in 1831, and in the following year was nomi nated minister of the interior, when he was suddenly attacked with paralysis, of which he died, May 13, 1832.
It is difficult, in our narrow compass, to give a summary of the merits o2 C., so various were his attainments, so great was his success in so many departments. Ile laid the foundation of the now universally recognized method of classification in zoology (q.v.), and raised comparative anatomy (which until his time had been merely a heap of unconnected details) to the dignity of a science. After a long series of patient observations on numerous animals, especially the hitherto little-known order of mollusca, he published (1801-6) his Lepons d'Analosnie Compares, which was completed by the Memoire pour servir d l'Histoire de l'Anatomie des Mollusques (1816). With admir able sagacity, he applied the principles of his comparative osteology to the remains of fossil vertebrate animals, and thus opened a field of investigation in which numerous explorers have since successfully labored. His Recherches Ur les Os.sements Fossiles des Quadrupedes (1821-24) is a mine of information in natural history, and affords 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 organization. C.'s rare faculty of expressing scientific truths in a popular and elegant style, was dis played in his celebrated Discours sur les Revolutions de la Surface du Globe ct sur les Changernents qu'elles ont produits dans is Refine Animal (latest edition, Paris, 1851). This discourse was published as an introduction to the above-named Recherches sur 15.9 Osse ments Fossiles. In concert with Valenciennes, C., in 1828, commenced a _Natural Hi.story of Fishes, which was founded on the largest ichthyological collection ever made by an individual. It was continued by Valenciennes. Lastly, we may notice the eloges deny. ered by C. (and published in the Recueil d'.Eloges Histortqws, 1819), as valuable contribu tions to the history of science.
In public life, C. was as remarkable for activity as in the quiet work of the study. He never blindly surrendered himself to any party, but at all times gave proof of an honest, sagacious, and resolute character. In his plans for the extension and improve ment of national education, he was zealous and indefatigable, as also in his efforts for the welfare of the Protestant church in France, of which lie was a member.—Mrs. 11. Lee's Memoirs of Baron. C. (Loud. 1833); Pasquier's Eloge de C. (Paris, 1833).