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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index C > Baron Georges Cuvier Quotes > Morphology

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Baron Georges Cuvier
(23 Aug 1769 - 13 May 1832)

French zoologist, statesman, anatomist and paleontologist.


Baron Georges Cuvier Quotes on Morphology (4 quotes)

>> Click for 24 Science Quotes by Baron Georges Cuvier

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A famous anecdote concerning Cuvier involves the tale of his visitation from the devil—only it was not the devil but one of his students dressed up with horns on his head and shoes shaped like cloven hooves. This frightening apparition burst into Cuvier’s bedroom when he was fast asleep and claimed:
“Wake up thou man of catastrophes. I am the Devil. I have come to devour you!”
Cuvier studied the apparition carefully and critically said,
“I doubt whether you can. You have horns and hooves. You eat only plants.”
— Baron Georges Cuvier
Quoted in Glyn Daniel, The Idea of Pre-History (1962), 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Anecdote (21)  |  Burst (41)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Catastrophe (35)  |  Claim (154)  |  Devil (34)  |  Devour (29)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Eat (108)  |  Horn (18)  |  Involve (93)  |  Man (2252)  |  Morphology (22)  |  Plant (320)  |  Shoe (12)  |  Student (317)

All organs of an animal form a single system, the parts of which hang together, and act and re-act upon one another; and no modifications can appear in one part without bringing about corresponding modifications in all the rest.
— Baron Georges Cuvier
Histoire des Progrès des Sciences naturelles depuis (1789), Vol. I, 310. Quoted in E. S. Russell, Form and Function(1916), 35.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Animal (651)  |  Form (976)  |  Hang (46)  |  Modification (57)  |  Morphology (22)  |  Organ (118)  |  Rest (287)  |  Single (365)  |  System (545)  |  Together (392)

At the sight of a single bone, of a single piece of bone, I recognize and reconstruct the portion of the whole from which it would have been taken. The whole being to which this fragment belonged appears in my mind's eye.
— Baron Georges Cuvier
Cited by Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Comptes-Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences. 1837, 7, 116. Trans. Franck Bourdier, 'Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire versus Cuvier: The Campaign for Paleontological Evolution (1825- 1838)', Cecil J. Schneer (ed.), Toward a History of Geology (1969), 44.
Science quotes on:  |  Appearance (145)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belong (168)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Bone (101)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mind�s Eye (3)  |  Morphology (22)  |  Piece (39)  |  Portion (86)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Reconstruction (16)  |  Sight (135)  |  Single (365)  |  Whole (756)

Since nothing can exist that does not fulfil the conditions which render its existence possible, the different parts each being must be co-ordinated in such a way as to render possible the existence of the being as a whole, not only in itself, but also in its relations with other beings, and the analysis of these conditions often leads to general laws which are as certain as those which are derived from calculation or from experiment.
— Baron Georges Cuvier
Le Règne Animal distribué d' Après son Organisation (1817), 6. Translated in E. S. Russell, Form and Function: A Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology (1916), 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Being (1276)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Certain (557)  |  Condition (362)  |  Different (595)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experiment (736)  |  General (521)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Morphology (22)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possible (560)  |  Render (96)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)


See also:
  • 23 Aug - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Cuvier's birth.

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