Cuvier’s Interest Started With A Book

While 10 years old, Georges Cuvier discovered the book "Historiae Animalium" by the Swiss physician Conrad Gessner. He had no idea that this would ignite his love of history and the scientific sciences. Conrad Gessner (1516–1565) compiled an exhaustive "catalog of renaissance biology" in Historia animalium, which was published in Zurich between 1551 and 1558 and again in 1587. Gessner worked as a physician and taught at the Carolinum in Zürich, which was the forerunner to the University of Zurich. The Historia animalium is the first contemporary zoological book that makes an effort to describe every animal now in existence, as well as the first bibliography of works on natural history. More than 4,500 pages are included in the five volumes of the natural history of animals.

After that, Cuvier began visiting his cousin to read several volumes of the French scientist Comte de Buffon's "Histoire Naturelle." It's interesting to note that Cuvier eagerly ate up these volumes, learning everything he could. Cuvier was knowledgeable about a variety of quadrupedal animals and bird species when he was just 12 years old, placing him on par with the best naturalists.