The Observer Listens To Nature: The Experimenter

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.

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.

The Lowest And Most Level Land Areas Show Us, Especially When We Dig There To Very Great Depths, Nothing But Horizontal Layers Of Material More Or Less Varied, Which Almost All Contain Innumerable Products Of The Sea.

Thus It Cannot Be Denied That The Masses Which Today Form Our Highest Mountains Were Originally In A Liquid State; For A Long Time They Were Covered By Waters Which Did Not Sustain Any Life.

It Is In This Mutual Dependence Of The Functions And The Aid Which They Reciprocally Lend One Another That Are Founded The Laws Which Determine The Relations Of Their Organs And Which Possess A Necessity Equal To That Of Metaphysical Or Mathematical Laws, Since It Is Evident That The Seemly Harmony Between Organs Which Interact Is A Necessary Condition Of Existence Of The Creature To Which They Belong And That If One Of These Functions Were Modified In A Manner Incompatible With The Modifications Of The Others The Creature Could No Longer Continue To Exist.