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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