Editing Georges Cuvier (section)

== Biography ==
[[File:Georges Cuvier 3.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait by [[François-André Vincent]], 1795]]

'''Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier'''<!--boldface per MOS:BOLDSYN--> was born in [[Montbéliard]], where his Protestant ancestors had lived since the time of the Reformation.<ref name="Lee 1833, p. 8">{{harvnb|Lee|1833|p=8}}</ref> His mother was Anne Clémence Chatel; his father, Jean-Georges Cuvier, was a lieutenant in the Swiss Guards and a bourgeois of the town of Montbéliard.<ref>'Extrait du 7.e Registre des Enfants baptises dans l'Eglise françoise de Saint Martin de la Ville de Montbéliard deposé aux Archives de l'Hôtel de Ville', [http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/leonore/LH059/PG/FRDAFAN83_OL0643010V003.htm Culture.gouv.fr]</ref> At the time, the town, which would be annexed to France on 10 October 1793, belonged to the [[Duchy of Württemberg]]. His mother, who was much younger than his father, tutored him diligently throughout his early years, so he easily surpassed the other children at school.<ref name="Lee 1833, p. 8" /> During his [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] years, he had little trouble acquiring Latin and Greek, and was always at the head of his class in mathematics, history, and geography.<ref name="Lee 1833, p. 11">{{harvnb|Lee|1833|p=11}}</ref> According to Lee,<ref name="Lee 1833, p. 11" /> "The history of mankind was, from the earliest period of his life, a subject of the most indefatigable application; and long lists of sovereigns, princes, and the driest chronological facts, once arranged in his memory, were never forgotten."

[[File:Maison natale.jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|left|Birthplace of Georges Cuvier in [[Montbéliard]]<ref>{{cite web |last=Taquet |first=Philippe |title=Les années de jeunesse de Georges Cuvier |trans-title=Georges Cuvier's early years |language=fr |url=http://www.montbeliard-emulation.fr/documents/pdf/bulletin34.pdf?PHPSESSID=3efe14e6c26b963c20e11daecb2ced01 |publisher=Société d'émulation de Montbéliard |page=217 |access-date=1 July 2015 |date=2006 |archive-date=6 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306235415/http://montbeliard-emulation.fr/documents/pdf/bulletin34.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>]]
At the age of 10, soon after entering the [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]], he encountered a copy of [[Conrad Gessner]]'s ''Historiae Animalium'', the work that first sparked his interest in [[natural history]]. He then began frequent visits to the home of a relative, where he could borrow volumes of [[Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon|the Comte de Buffon]]'s massive ''[[Histoire Naturelle]].'' All of these he read and reread, retaining so much of the information, that by the age of 12, "he was as familiar with quadrupeds and birds as a first-rate naturalist."<ref name="Lee 1833, p. 11" /> He remained at the gymnasium for four years.

Cuvier spent an additional four years at the Caroline Academy in [[Stuttgart]], where he excelled in all of his coursework. Although he knew no German on his arrival, after only nine months of study, he managed to win the school prize for that language. Cuvier's German education exposed him to the work of the geologist [[Abraham Gottlob Werner]] (1750–1817), whose [[Neptunism]] and emphasis on the importance of rigorous, direct observation of three-dimensional, structural relationships of rock formations to geological understanding provided models for Cuvier's scientific theories and methods.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Georges Cuvier, fossil bones, and geological catastrophes : new translations & interpretations of the primary texts|last=S.|first=Rudwick, M. J.|date=1998|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0226731063|edition=|location=Chicago|pages=4, 7|oclc=45730036}}</ref>

Upon graduation, he had no money on which to live as he awaited an appointment to an academic office. So in July 1788, he took a job at Fiquainville chateau in Normandy as tutor to the only son of the [[Comte d'Héricy]], a Protestant noble. There, during the early 1790s, he began his comparisons of fossils with extant forms. Cuvier regularly attended meetings held at the nearby town of [[Valmont, Seine-Maritime|Valmont]] for the discussion of agricultural topics. There, he became acquainted with Henri Alexandre Tessier (1741–1837), who had assumed a false identity. Previously, he had been a physician and well-known agronomist, who had fled the [[Reign of Terror|Terror]] in Paris. After hearing Tessier speak on agricultural matters, Cuvier recognized him as the author of certain articles on agriculture in the ''[[Encyclopédie Méthodique]]'' and addressed him as M. Tessier.

Tessier replied in dismay, "I am known, then, and consequently lost."—"Lost!" replied M. Cuvier, "no; you are henceforth the object of our most anxious care."<ref>{{harvnb|Lee|1833|p=22}}</ref> They soon became intimate and Tessier introduced Cuvier to his colleagues in Paris"I have just found a pearl in the dunghill of Normandy", he wrote his friend [[Antoine-Augustin Parmentier]].<ref>{{harvnb|Lee|1833|p=22, footnote}}</ref> As a result, Cuvier entered into correspondence with several leading naturalists of the day and was invited to Paris. Arriving in the spring of 1795, at the age of 26, he soon became the assistant of [[Jean-Claude Mertrud]] (1728–1802), who had been appointed to the chair of [[Animal anatomy|Animal Anatomy]] at the [[Jardin des Plantes]]. When Mertrud died in 1802, Cuvier replaced him in office and the Chair changed its name to Chair of [[Comparative anatomy|Comparative Anatomy]].<ref>Thierry Malvésy, [https://www.mnhn.fr/sites/mnhn.fr/files/documents/242_publication_sam_juin2010.pdf Georges Cuvier : Montbéliard 1769 – Paris 1832], ''[[Friends of the Natural History Museum Paris|Les Amis du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle - Publication trimestrielle]]'' (quarterly publication). N° 242, June 2010; {{ISSN|1161-9104}}, p. 18 {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

The [[Institut de France]] was founded in the same year, and he was elected a member of its [[French Academy of Sciences|Academy of Sciences]]. On 4 April 1796 he began to lecture at the [[École Centrale du Pantheon]] and, at the opening of the National Institute in April, he read his first paleontological paper, which subsequently was published in 1800 under the title ''Mémoires sur les espèces d'éléphants vivants et fossiles''.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=676}} In this paper, he analyzed skeletal remains of Indian and African [[elephant]]s, as well as [[mammoth]] [[fossil]]s, and a fossil skeleton known at that time as the "Ohio animal". In his second paper in 1796, he described and analyzed a large skeleton found in [[Paraguay]], which he would name ''[[Megatherium]]''.<ref name=":3" /> He concluded this skeleton represented yet another extinct animal and, by comparing its skull with living species of tree-dwelling sloths, that it was a kind of ground-dwelling [[ground sloth|giant sloth]].

Together, these two 1796 papers were a seminal or landmark event, becoming a turning point in the [[history of paleontology]], and in the development of [[comparative anatomy]], as well. They also greatly enhanced Cuvier's personal reputation and they essentially ended what had been a long-running debate about the reality of [[extinction]].

In 1799, he succeeded [[Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton|Daubenton]] as professor of natural history in the ''[[Collège de France]]''. In 1802, he became titular professor at the ''[[Jardin des Plantes]]''; and in the same year, he was appointed commissary of the institute to accompany the inspectors general of public instruction. In this latter capacity, he visited the south of France, but in the early part of 1803, he was chosen permanent secretary of the department of physical sciences of the Academy, and he consequently abandoned the earlier appointment and returned to Paris.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=676}} In 1806, he became a foreign member of the [[Royal Society]], and in 1812, a foreign member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]. In 1812, he became a correspondent for the [[Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences|Royal Institute of the Netherlands]], and became a member in 1827.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00004738 |title=Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier (1769–1832) |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=19 July 2015}}</ref> Cuvier was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1822.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter C|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=8 September 2016}}</ref>

[[File:Tombe Cuvier.jpg|thumb|upright|Cuvier's tomb in the [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]], Paris]]
Cuvier then devoted himself more especially to three lines of inquiry: (i) the structure and classification of the ''[[Mollusca]]''; (ii) the comparative anatomy and systematic arrangement of the fishes; (iii) fossil mammals and reptiles and, secondarily, the [[osteology]] of living forms belonging to the same groups.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=676}}

In 1812, Cuvier made what the cryptozoologist [[Bernard Heuvelmans]] called his "Rash dictum": he remarked that it was unlikely that any large animal remained undiscovered. Ten years after his death, the word "dinosaur" would be coined by [[Richard Owen]] in 1842.

During his lifetime, Cuvier served as an imperial councillor under [[Napoleon]], president of the Council of Public Instruction and chancellor of the university under the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|restored Bourbons]], Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, a Peer of France, Minister of the Interior, and president of the Council of State under [[Louis Philippe I|Louis Philippe]]. He was eminent in all these capacities, and yet the dignity given by such high administrative positions was as nothing compared to his leadership in natural science.<ref>Andrew Dickson White, [[wikiquote:A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom|''A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom'']] Appleton (1922) [https://books.google.com/books?id=8EXID2XVPzEC& Vol. 1] p. 64</ref>

Cuvier was by birth, education, and conviction a devout [[Lutheran]],<ref>{{harvnb|Coleman|1962|p=16}}</ref> and remained Protestant throughout his life while regularly attending [[church service]]s. Despite this, he regarded his personal faith as a private matter; he evidently identified himself with his confessional minority group when he supervised governmental educational programs for [[protestantism|Protestants]]. He also was very active in founding the Parisian [[Bible society|Biblical Society]] in 1818, where he later served as a vice president.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|2004|p=8}}</ref> From 1822 until his death in 1832, Cuvier was Grand Master of the Protestant Faculties of Theology of the French University.<ref name="Taquet">{{harvnb|Taquet|2006|p=127}}</ref>