Heroes of science

by P. Martin Duncan

Cuvier was, in consequence, asked to read some of his essays to the Society of Natural History at Paris, and these gave such satisfaction that he was invited to take a position at the Jardin des Plantes. This occurred in 1795, and Cuvier was then twenty-six years of age. He was thus settled for life in the very position he desired, for although called the garden of plants, a grand museum of the comparative anatomy of animals was to rise there under the superintendence of the young man. He was soon made professor at the central school of the Pantheon, and began to write capital manuals of his subject for the students. The next year the National Institute was formed, and Cuvier was one of its first members. At this time his knowledge of zoology was very great, and he had more than the usual amount of information about the internal anatomy of the different great groups of animals. He published an elementary title or scheme of the natural history of animals, and gradually the collection of skeletons began to be great in his establishment. Cuvier paid great attention to the relative shapes, and different developments of the same kind of bones in various animals, and especially to the nature of their teeth. So great did his experience and correct knowledge become, that he rarely failed in naming an animal from part of its skeleton. This power impressed Cuvier with the idea of a philosophy in nature, and with the evidence of creative design and purpose, of means for ends. But this kind of study led to some very remarkable results. Had it influenced Cuvier as it previously had zoologists, he would have still become the most accomplished and important naturalist of this century. It would have been said, as it may well be, that he established the study of animals on a firm basis, and that his natural classification has lasted, because he considered not only the outsides of animals, but also the importance of their most peculiar organs, in arranging them into groups, or separating them from others. But Cuvier had seen and studied the bones and skulls of animals which had been dug out of the earth in a mineralized condition. The strata at Montmartre, near Paris, had yielded a great number of bones, which presented some resemblances to those of animals still living but which were clearly not the bones of any existing genera or species. Comparative anatomy was made to connect the past and present animals, and to indicate the possibility of all the past and present creation being placed in one great classification. As Cuvier progressed in this study, he endeavoured to restore, and with considerable success, the extinct animal’s shape, to discover its habits and method of life, and to find out its nearest modern ally. Palæontology, or the study of extinct animals, is under the greatest obligations to this great Frenchman, and it may be called the zoology of the past ages of the earth. He did not, however, forget his one great desire, which was to form a perfect book on comparative anatomy, and one in which all animals would find a place, called “La Règne Animal.” (The animal kingdom.)

As soon as Cuvier found himself well established as assistant to M. Mertrud, the professor of comparative anatomy to the Jardin des Plantes, he sent for his old father, then eighty years of age, and for his brother, M. F. Cuvier, to live with him. The first thing he did was to collect all the available specimens of bones and preparations of animals, and he found many hidden away in vaults and which had been collected by Daubenton and Buffon. Other specimens were obtained, and thus the great collection was commenced. In 1796, Cuvier discovered the curious fact that there is naturally red blood in leeches, and in the following year he read a famous paper on the nutrition of insects. Refusing to go to Egypt, as he had his proper work to do at home, for his pupils Dumeril and Duvernoy were working hard for and with him, dissecting and describing, the result was the publication of the first volume of the lessons on comparative anatomy already alluded to. This led to Cuvier being made professor of natural history to the College of France. Of the young professor’s ability there could be no doubt, and everybody was struck with the excellent method of his lectures and books. His mind was essentially an orderly and very contemplative and reasoning one, and his fame soon reached the ears of Napoleon, then first consul. He made Cuvier one of the six inspectors general of education who were to found public schools in some thirty towns in France and what are now called Royal Colleges. Cuvier founded those of Bordeaux, Nice, and Marseilles. In this last-mentioned place he continued his work on marine animals. Whilst Cuvier was performing these very important duties for the state, with great benefit to the towns and credit to himself, he was chosen to be one of the perpetual secretaries to the National Institute, and had a salary given to him for it of two hundred guineas a year. Although this sum was to be well earned, and the secretary had to receive distinguished foreigners at table, a fuss was made about it. Cuvier, however, knew his own value, and insisted on retaining it. The labourer is worthy of his hire, and the sum was less than the salary of a first-class clerk. A great Italian politician once said keep the professors poor. Why? Because he knew that the diffusion of liberal knowledge would be fatal to civil and military tyranny. However, Cuvier gave up his school inspectorship and laboured on at his favourite studies. He lost his father and his brother’s wife died leaving a child, so that Cuvier and his brother were alone. Marriage became a necessity for the rising man, and he was attracted by a lady of great merit, who had suffered both poverty and misfortune. Madame Duvancel was the widow of an official who perished on the scaffold in 1794, and she had some children of her own. Cuvier had a great affection for her and she made him happy, was a great companion, and when he rose to his greatness, she was an admirable helpmate. In 1808, as secretary to the National Institute, Cuvier had to write a report on the progress of the natural sciences from the year 1789. A mere report was required, but Cuvier was too thorough, and his essay was an admirable and most lucid treatise. Napoleon, then emperor, was greatly struck with it, and presented the paper to the council of state. Some of the sentences should be written in letters of gold in every senate and learned by heart by all politicians. “The true object of science is to lead the mind of man towards its noble destination—a knowledge of truth—to spread sound and useful ideas among the lowest classes of the people, to draw human beings from the effects of prejudices and passions, to make reason the arbitrator and supreme guide of public opinion.” Napoleon, who nearly always chose the best men for a place, made Cuvier a counsellor of the new Imperial University, and the two men thus came frequently in contact. Repeated personal interviews preceded Cuvier’s appointment to organize new universities in the foreign states more or less under the sway of France. He undertook the reorganization of the old Italian universities of Piedmont, Genoa, and Tuscany. His reports of these missions speak of the enlightenment of his mind and his truly reasonable and very liberal spirit. Speaking of the universities of Tuscany, he deprecates a too hasty and rash interference with institutions which had been founded and maintained by so many distinguished men of old and in which he found so much to praise and to retain. He made good use of his time in Tuscany by taking drawings of and collecting fossil bones, and in 1811 his great work on the fossil remains of animals appeared. He examined into the condition of the universities of Holland, and finally those of lower Germany. These journeys were doubly useful, for they established his health and gave him plenty of opportunity of visiting museums. While at Hamburg, Napoleon gave him the title of chevalier, which was confirmed to him and his heirs. But such honours were not destined to descend, for Cuvier lost his son in his seventh year. It was a great grief, and it saddened and subdued the man. This trial happened when Cuvier was at Rome, trying to arrange the universities there. Being a Protestant, the mission was one requiring peculiar forbearance and firmness. Yet the enlightened tolerance of Cuvier, and his mild and benignant manners, gained for him the esteem and respect of all parties. Risen from the ranks, having been poor and often anxious to know how to learn, Cuvier was a capital man for his position. He paid particular attention not only to the higher branches of education, but also to popular or elementary education. His principle was that instruction would lead to civilization, and civilization to morality, and therefore that primary or elementary instruction should give to the people every means of fully exercising their industry, without disgusting them with their condition. That secondary instruction should expand the mind, without rendering it false or presumptuous; and that special or scientific instruction should give to France magistrates, advocates, generals, clergy, professors and other men of learning. He taught—“give schools before political rights; make citizens comprehend the duties that the state of society imposes on them; teach them what are political rights before you offer them for their enjoyment, and then all amelioration will be made without causing a shock. Imitate nature, which in the development of beings acts by gradation, and gives time to every member to arrive at perfection.”

Napoleon had great confidence in Cuvier, and wished to make him tutor to his son, and ordered him to draw up a list of books as a preliminary step. In 1814 he made him a councillor of state, and Louis XVIII. confirmed him in the appointment subsequently.

Cuvier wrote in early life, on living and fossil elephants, the different species of rhinoceros, the structure of ascidians, and the anatomy of bivalve molluscs. Later on he described the crocodilians of the old and new world and the fossil tapirs of France. Subsequently to 1801 he read memoirs on the teeth of fish, on the worms, the anatomy of the mollusca, the comparative anatomy and classification of fishes, the fossil mammals and reptiles, and the bony structures of these last two groups. Most of these works were the joint productions of other very distinguished men and himself. Thus the work on fishes, which contained descriptions of no less than five thousand kinds, was by Cuvier and Valenciennes. Year after year Cuvier added to the store of knowledge he was so anxious to give to the history of the earth, and his descriptions, monuments of exactitude, of the fossil kinds of rhinoceros, hyænæ, and of some of the great sloths, were the result of his careful examination of the living species of the genera or families which were found fossil. We owe to Cuvier the truth that ancient forms of life, the bones and teeth of which alone remain, and which were buried by nature formerly, can be “restored.” That is to say, by taking the existing or modern example, and by reasoning upon the nature of the teeth, claws, hoofs, and horns present or absent, the nature, shape and destiny of the ancient animal can be given to the world at the present time.

After the abdication of Napoleon and the defeat at Waterloo, it became necessary, in the ideas of Louis XVIII., that the universities should be remodelled, and a committee of public instruction was created to exercise the powers formerly belonging to the grand master, the council, and the treasurer of the University. Cuvier was one of the committee, and was made chancellor of the University, a position which he retained until his death under most trying circumstances. No man did greater or better and more lasting work for state education than Cuvier. His heart was in the work of education; he had nothing but mental progress to desire; and it was a much more satisfactory thing for France to have a renowned, scientific man at the head of a great university, who, moreover, really controlled the education of the country, than to have had such important offices held by mere politicians and soldiers.

In 1817 Cuvier published a second edition of his “Fossil Bones,” and the great book, the “Règne Animal” (the “Animal Kingdom”), was re-issued. In this last work Cuvier immortalized himself; and his classification has been of the greatest possible value to his successors. He reduced the six classes of animals which had been suggested by the ancients and Linnæus, namely, quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, and worms, to four, or vertebrated animals (animals with backbones), molluscous animals (such as snails and oysters), articulated animals (insects and crabs), and radiated animals (such as corals and sea anemones). Although this classification has become modified, still Cuvier gave the method of true classification in animals. One or two points or peculiarities were not to be considered at the expense of others which belonged to organs of great importance to the animal. He asserted that all the structures of the animal must be studied, and physiology as well as anatomy must be considered. The most important structures must be considered first of all, and the grand divisions of classification must rest upon them. In the “Règne Animal” Cuvier commences with man, whom he places in a genus by himself, and recognizes only one species diversified by varieties or races. In 1818 Cuvier visited London, and remained there for about six weeks, receiving every scientific and social honour. He mixed freely in scientific society, and was received by George IV. On being consulted by his Majesty about our national collections, he said that if all the British private collections could be collected into one, they would form a great national museum which would surpass every other. Cuvier was greatly interested in the freedom of English politics; and on the election for Westminster taking place he went on to the hustings. He was intensely amused at the speeches and the violence of the mob, who pelted their political opponents after the fashion of the day with bad eggs, dead cats, cabbages, and mud. He went to Oxford, and then all the party were invited to Windsor. Sir Joseph Banks asked everybody in the scientific world to meet Cuvier, and Sir Everard Home also. The great naturalist, once a half-starved student and a tutor, became the guest of the most honoured amongst men, and was very sensible of the kindness shown him. He could not, however, reconcile himself to the long dinners and long sittings at table, which were then, as now, fashionable in England. Not only did Cuvier study the national and private natural history collections in this country, but he also paid much attention to the system of education and to the nature of our political constitution.

Returning to Paris, Cuvier was elected a member of the Académie Française, and in the following year was made president of the Comité de l’Interieur, and created a baron. He resigned his temporary grand mastership of the University, so as to accept without salary the grand mastership of the Faculties of Protestant Theology, and vice-president of the Bible Society.

In 1824, as president of the Comité, or one of the councils of state, Cuvier took part in the coronation of Charles X., on which occasion he was made grand master of the Legion of Honour. In 1827 he was appointed censor of the press, an office which his love of liberty of thought soon made him resign. Sacrificing all his leisure to the greater educational matters, and ever labouring at science, Cuvier also formed a great library, which was always open to naturalists who desired to visit and use it. Cuvier’s orderly and critical mind enabled him to fulfil the office of secretary to the institute with great success; and he especially shone in writing the interesting lives of the distinguished men who died during each year. Moreover, he reported on each memoir which was submitted to the institute for reading and publication. Cuvier was great as a public lecturer, and had a flexible and sonorous voice, which resounded far and wide in the room. His audiences were always enthusiastic; and many a student waited long to get a good seat before the professor began. He taught, chalk in hand, and drew well on the black board, his artistic power remaining to the last.

Cuvier came to England a second time, and it is tolerably clear that it was to escape the inevitable revolution which was caused by the tyranny of Charles X. and his advisers. His carriage passed out of Paris, and five hours afterwards firing began, which led to the dethronement of the king and the restoration of liberty. In London Cuvier used to enjoy the political and other caricatures in the shops, and loved to go down to such places as Richmond to see the scenery.