and other subjects, are sufficient to establish his character as a most ingenious and accurate experimenter, and as a chemical philosopher of the highest order.
But it is to his researches on the "Law of the conduction of heat," "On the specific heat of the gases," and "On the elastic force of steam at high temperatures," that his permanent fame as a philosopher will rest most securely: the first of these inquiries, which were undertaken in conjunction with the late M. Petit, was published in 1817; and presents an admirable example of the combination of well-directed and most laborious and patient experiment with most sagacious and careful induction: these researches terminated, as is well known, in the very important correction of the celebrated law of conduction, which Newton had announced in the Principia, and which Laplace, Poisson, and Fourier had taken as the basis of their beautiful mathematical theories of the propagation of heat. His experiments on the elastic force of steam at high temperatures, and which were full of danger and difficulty, were undertaken at the request of the Institute, and furnish results of the highest practical value; and though the conclusions deduced from his "Researches on the specific heat of gases" have not generally been admitted by chemical and physical philosophers, the memoir which contains them is replete with ingenious and novel speculations, which show a profound knowledge and familiar command of almost every department of physical science.
M. Frederic Cuvier, the younger brother of the illustrious Baron Cuvier, Professor of Animal Physiology to the Museum of Natural History at Paris, and Inspector-general of the University, was born at Montbelliard, in Alsace, in 1773: he had from an early period attached himself to those studies which his brother had cultivated with so much success, and his appointment as keeper of the menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes, furnished him with the most favourable opportunities of studying the habits of animals, and of prose-cuting his researches on their physiology and structure. The Annales d'Histoire Naturelle, and the Memoires du Museum, contain a series of his memoirs on zoological subjects of great value and interest, and his work "Sur les Dens des Mammifères considerées comme Caracteres Zoologiques," is full of novel and original views and observations, and has always been considered as one of the most valuable contributions to the science of Zoology which has been made in later times: the great work "Sur l'Histoire des Mammifères," of which seventy numbers have been published, was undertaken in conjunction with Geoffroy St. Hilaire, and is the most considerable and most extensive publication on Zoology which has appeared since the time of Buffon. He was likewise the author of many other works and memoirs on zoological subjects in various scientific journals and collections.
M. F. Cuvier, like his celebrated relative, combined a remarkable dignity and elevation of character, with the most affectionate temper and disposition. Like him, too, his acquisitions were not confined to his professional pursuits, but comprehended a very exten-
