CUVIER, G.

Tableau élémentaire de l'Histoire Naturelle des Animaux.

Paris, Baudouin, An 6 (1798). 8vo. Nice cont. full mottled calf. Richly gilt back. Light wear to lower part of back and a small hole in leather at lower hinge. Red leather titlelabel. XVI,710 pp. and 14 engraved plates with many figs. A large clean copy.

First edition of Cuvier's first work on comparative zoology, in which he showed the affinities in structure between present forms of animals, researches which resulted in comparison with older forms and thereby for other theorists suggested evolutionary lines and links. Cuvier is considered as the founder of modern palaeontology by this and his later published work "Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles...
"Cuvier's first separate work, "Tableau..." (1798), is based on a course of lectures he had delivered at l'Ecole du Pantheon. It was the first general statement of his natural classification of the animal kingdom...He establishd the four great classes (vertebrates, molluscs, articulates, and radiates) and classified the animals according to the anatomical structure." (Milestone of Science No. 44). - Wood p. 307.

Order-nr.: 29881