George Cuvier DISCOURSE ON THE REVOLUTIONARY UPHEAVALS ON THE SURFACE OF THE GLOBE AND ON THE CHANGES WHICH THEY HAVE PRODUCED IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM Translated by Ian Johnston Vancouver Island University Nanaimo, BC Canada [Revised 2009] [Note that this text may be downloaded, printed, and distributed or distributed electronically, in whole or in part, without permission and without charge. Commercial publication of any part of it is, however, prohibited, without the permission of the translator. For information, please contact [email protected] . Please note that in order to make the download of this text quicker, the diagrams at the end of Cuvier’s text have been placed in a different file. These may be accessed by the following link: Diagrams . If the link does not work try typing the address http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/cuvier/illustrations.pdf into the browser. 1 Table of Contents 1 Introductory Note 3 Translator’s Note 5 Foreword 6 Exposition 7 The First Appearance of the Earth 8 The First Proofs of Upheavals 9 Proofs that these Revolutions have been Numerous 10 Proofs that these Revolutions have been Sudden 11 Proofs that there were Revolutionary Upheavals before the Existence of Living Things 12 Examination of the Causes Which Are Still at Work Today on the Surface of the Earth 15 Collapses 16 Alluvial Deposits 16 Dunes 17 Cliffs 17 Deposits Under the Waters 18 Stalactites 18 Lithophytes 19 Encrustations 19 Volcanoes 20 Constant Astronomical Causes 20 Ancient Systems of Geologists 21 More Recent Systems 22 Divergences of All Systems 24 Causes of These Divergences 24 The Nature and Conditions of the Problem 25 Reason for the Neglect of These Conditions 26 Progress of Mineral Geology 26 Importance of Fossils in Geology 26 1 [ Translator’s note : Cuvier’s text has words in the margins to indicate the start of impor- tant sections. These remarks in the margins have been made headings in the following text and are listed above in the Table of Contents]. 2 Special Importance of the Fossil Bones of Quadrupeds 28 There is Little Hope of Discovering New Species of Large Quadrupeds 29 The Fossil Bones of Quadrupeds are Difficult to Determine 39 Principle of Determination 40 Tabulated General Results of These Studies 44 Relationships Between Species and the Strata 45 The Lost Species Are Not Varieties of the Living Species 48 There Are No Human Fossil Bones 53 Physical Proofs of the Newness of the Present State of the Continents 56 Deposits of Material 56 The March of the Dunes 63 Peat Bogs and Rock Falls 64 The History of Peoples Confirms the Newness of the Continents 64 The Excessive Antiquity Attributed to Certain People Has No Historical Basis 69 The Astronomical Monuments Left by the Ancients Do Not Bear the Excessively Distant Dates Which People Believe They Have Seen in Them 92 The Zodiac Is Far From Carrying in Itself a Certain and Excessively Ancient Date 103 Exaggerations Concerning Certain Mine Works 106 General Conclusion Concerning the Time of the Latest Revolution 107 Ideas About Later Geological Research Projects 107 A Summary of the Observations on the Successive Formations 109 Enumeration of Fossil Animals Recognized by the Author 113 Appendix: Determination of the Birds Called Ibis by the Ancient Egyptians 133 Illustrations 149 A Note on the Translator 157 Introductory Note Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) was a major scientific figure in the early 19 th century, a brilliant and enormously influential naturalist in France and throughout Europe. His work on the comparative anatomy of living and fossil animals, especially vertebrates, was a major landmark in the history of modern biology. Cuvier was, like many other naturalists at the time, a staunch opponent of the theory of evolution, above all as that theory had been presented by his colleague Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in Philosophie zoologique (1809). 3 Cuvier’s Discourse on the Revolutions On the Surface of the Earth was or- iginally (in a somewhat different form) the preface to his larger work Research into the Fossil Remains of Quadrupeds (published in 1812, 1821, and 1825). The Discourse was immediately popular and was later published as an independent work, went through several editions, and was translated into a number of different languages. In the Discourse , Cuvier has at least three main purposes. First, he wishes to review the present state of knowledge in geology, paleontology, and comparative anatomy, particularly with a view to listing some of the many competing contemporary theories about the formation of the earth and to explaining why there is so much confusion. Second, he wants to demon- strate conclusively that the earth’s surface has undergone at least three major catastrophes (not simply one, as Biblical literalists were insisting), thus making the case for a scientific position known as catastrophism (changes have come about by a series of unique general upheavals, rather than by slow, constant processes or by local disasters). And finally he wishes to demonstrate, equally conclusively, that the last such catastrophe was fairly recent (a few thousand years ago at most) and thus that the present forms of human society are not nearly as ancient as many people have been claiming. Cuvier’s opposition to the theory of evolution rests upon some important scientific claims. To begin with, he argues that there could have been no uninterrupted continuity in the development of life, because the sudden universal catastrophes, which brought about mass extinctions, cannot be explained in terms of present forces at work on the surface of the earth (hence, the claim of the uniformitarians, like Lamarck, that the history of the earth’s surface can be accounted for in terms of present forces con- stantly working at present rates, is simply wrong). Moreover, there is not sufficient time since the last catastrophe for the development of new species. In addition, his principle of the correlation of parts in organic beings (one of his most important contributions to anatomy) indicates that simple changes in particular organs would not assist an animal, which is a complex coordinated whole; hence, the minor organic transformations upon which evolution depends would lead to extinction rather than to new species. Also the fossil record provides insufficient evidence of transitional types, an essential requirement of evolutionary theory in Lamarck (and later in Darwin). Finally, on the basis of his wide experience with the organic structure of animals, Cuvier argues that there are naturally fixed limits to the variations within species, beyond which new varieties are not possible. As Cuvier himself admits, his argument raises some significant questions of its own. For example: Why are there no human fossils? If there is no continuity between the extinct animals of past ages and present species, where were the latter species during the catastrophes? Where did our present species come from? 4 Cuvier’s objections to evolution, although set aside by Darwinian theory, have by no means been entirely dismissed (catastrophism, for example, has made something of a comeback in recent years), and many of his most important ideas have been incorporated into modern biology. Cuvier’s argument in the Discourse is remarkable for its clarity, for its grasp of many different areas of science, and, perhaps more than anything else, for its astonishing range. His analysis takes into account, not merely the findings of many of his scientific contemporaries and his own remark- able research results, but also the often questionable evidence in ancient writings from widely different cultures, as well as the claims of ancient and modern astronomers about the significance of astronomy and astrology in arguments about the age of the earth. It would be difficult to find a modern scientific argument which involves such a detailed look at ancient books and monuments and at the commentaries upon them. These qual- ities make Cuvier’s argument an exceptionally interesting and accessible scientific work from the most vital era of pre-Darwinian biology, the first decades of the 19 th century. One factor of particular interest, too, is Cuvier’s use of evidence from the French expedition to Egypt in 1798 (particularly in his discussions of the zodiac and in his report on the ibis, included as an appendix to the Discourse ). Although that campaign had ended in military failure in 1801, it produced an enormous wealth of scientific information of great interest and importance to those dealing with the history of the earth, the devel- opment of animal life, and the history of human societies. Much of this information was still being processed and catalogued and published in the first decades of the 19 th century, as one can see from different editions of the Discourse (later editions, including the Third, which is the basis for the translated text here, draw much more upon the Egyptian material than did the first version). The major publication prompted by this material from Egypt was called Description de l’Égypte , a series of volumes on ancient and modern Egypt produced by the 160 scholars who accompanied the military expedition and who shipped a great many valuable artifacts home (everything from mummified birds to temple ceilings). The first volume was published in 1810 and the last in 1829. Its full name was Description de l'Égypte, ou Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition de l'armée française [Description of Egypt, or collection of observations and research which was made in Egypt during the expedition of the French Army ). Cuvier routinely refers to the entire publication in his footnotes as “the great work on Egypt,” and sometimes he provides a partial title. Translator’s Note The footnotes in the following translation all come from Cuvier’s text, other than those in square brackets with the initial phrase Translator’s 5 note .