Cuvier

réf. 76532 — Paris Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle 1819. 4to 31.1 x 22.2 cm. 29 pp. 351-379; three engraved plates numbered 26-28. Disbound. = A seldom-seen paper of taxonomical importance by the great French zoologist and anatomist Georges Jean Léopold Dagobert Cuvier 1769-1832 which lays the foundation for comparative zoology and phylogeny. Cuvier "laid the foundations of comparative anatomy. . It is in his classification of the animal kingdom into four main groups Vertebrata Mollusca Articulata and Radiata that he so notably succeeded in giving a lead that has been followed by all his successors. In contradiction to the current view that the structure of an animal determined its functions and habits Cuvier held that an animal's structure was due to its functions and habits. . He also saw that . homogeneity in an individual should enable a competent naturalist to reconstruct a complete animal from any significant part of its anatomy" PMM. Published in the fifth volume of the Muséum's Mémoires. Uncut with the widest possible margins. Some mostly marginal spotting otherwise very good complete. Dean I p. 286. unknown