Note 87 — BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
Reading edition
George Cuvier in the department of Doubs, which at that time belonged to Württemberg. He was educated at Stuttgart, and studied political economy. While acting as private tutor to a French family in France he followed his favourite pursuit, the study of natural sciences. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire heard of him, and appointed him assistant in the department of comparative anatomy in the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle. In 1799 he was elected Professor of Natural History at the Collège de France, and soon after he became Perpetual Secretary of the Institut National. In 1831, a year before his death, Louis Philippe raised him to the rank of a peer of France.