CUVIER, GEORGES (b. Montbéliard, Württemberg, 23 August 1769; d. Paris, France, 13 May 1832), zoology, paleontology, history of science.

    presented it in different ways, each paper according to its political views. In the July Revolution of 1830 Charles X fled; after a few apprehensive days Cuvier won the favor of the new government. He was then able to resume his attacks against Lamarck and Geoffroy at the Collège de France. In his last lecture, six days before his death, after having pronounced an anathema upon useless scientific theories and upon the pantheism of Kielmeyer, Lamarck, and Geoffroy, he rendered solemn homage to Divine Intelligence, the Creator of all things, before an audience overcome by emotion.

Cuvier's life was one of compensation. Born into a poor family and not a member of the nobility, he became rich and acquired the title of baron. Not particularly handsome, he found consolation in being admired for his intelligence and gave himself a commanding appearance by wearing elaborate attire. His vanity was boundless, as was his hunger for honors and praise, characteristics that dominated his entire career. He had a somewhat Germanic mentality and envisaged society as a sort of organism in which subordination was the rule. Although he was very pliant toward his “superiors,” he was authoritarian toward those he deemed his “inferiors”; and he left only second-rate disciples.

In Cuvier's work one must consider separately his still little-known role of support for the Protestant community, a role that would perhaps justify some of his servility toward those in power. His activities on behalf of reorganization of education, often successful, were inspired by some novel ideas that had been popular at the Caroline University when he attended it. His great erudition could have made him the first great historian of natural science if he had had a more precise concept of the role played by theories in scientific research; throughout his life he took great pains to discredit theoretical ideas in favor of what he called positive facts. This proved to be his great error and for a long time was an obstacle to the development of natural science, particularly in France, where the line of “those limited to description” persists to this day.

It is likely that fear of a new revolution played a significant part in the religious revival that Cuvier manifested beginning in 1804; he must not be called to task for this, for thousands of Frenchmen at the time underwent a similar political-religious evolution. Cuvier undoubtedly rediscovered his faith sincerely each time a new period of mourning cast gloom on his existence. But his respect for biblical chronology prevented him from participating in a new form of thought, one that viewed phenomena in four dimensions, the fourth being that of time: time of short duration for physical phenomena, time that was measured in millions or billions of years for the creation of the universe or for that of living species. In this area Cuvier's thought was backward in relation to that of his first teacher, Buffon. His interpretation of the balance of parts of living creatures and the balance of creatures in nature was much too static—even Laplace reproached him for this—but then, by an irony of fate, paleontology, which he advanced in great measure, contributed decisive arguments in favor of the variability of species. When Darwin made the idea of evolution triumphant in 1859, and Christians no longer sought to harmonize the Bible with geology, Cuvier's glory diminished. Nevertheless, for the historian of science as well as for the psychologist who studies the conditions of scientific thought, Cuvier's role, his extraordinary memory, and even his failings remain rich sources of information.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. ORIGINAL WORKS.

There is no complete bibliography of Cuvier's works; one that included all the reprints and translations would probably run to 300 titles. The Catalogue of Scientific Papers of the Royal Society, II, VII, IX, XIV, lists works published after 1800 in scientific journals (243 titles); for papers published before 1800 see H. Daudin, Cuvier et Lamarck (Paris, 1926), II, 285-286. Basic individual works published in French can be found in the catalog of the Bibliothèque Nationale; translations are listed in catalogs of the larger foreign libraries.

Most of Cuvier's papers are at the library of the Institut de France (very fine analytical catalogs have been published by H. Dehérain) and at the library of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (mediocre catalog). The archives of the Council of State have disappeared, but those of the ministries probably contain many documents (not cataloged) concerning Cuvier's political and administrative activities. Cuvier's correspondence has not been collected systematically. His library, purchased by the state, was divided between the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle (works on natural sciences) and the École Normale Supérieure (other works).

II. SECONDARY LITERATURE.

Three of Cuvier's closest associates left behind biographies of him: G. L. Duverney, Notice historique sur les ouvrages et la vie de M. le Baron Cuvier (Paris, 1833), chronological bibliography of 213 titles and interesting information on Cuvier's childhood; C. L. Laurillard, Éloge de M. le Baron Cuvier (Paris, 1833), reprinted in Cuvier's Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles des quadrupèdes, I (1834), 3-78, and in Michaud's Biographie universelle, 2nd ed.; and Blainville, Cuvier et Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Paris, 1890). Cuvier's correspondence with Pfaff is presented in Georges Cuvier's Briefe an C. H. Pfaff aus den Jahren 1788 bis 1792 (Kiel, 1845), translated by Louis Marchant as Lettres de Georges Cuvier à C. H. Pfaff . . . (Paris, 1858). There are no adequate works on Cuvier's