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Rh and the following year appeared his paper on the nutrition of insects.

In 1799 he succeeded Daubenton (the collaborator of Buffon) in the chair of natural history at the Collège de France; and finally succeeded Mertrud in the chair of comparative anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes.

In 1800 he published his first palæontological paper, Mémoires sur les Espèces d'Eléphants vivants et fossils, and the quantity and quality of the palæontological work which he turned out is simply astounding.

After the publication of his great work, Leçons d'Anatomie Comparée, in 1802, Napoleon (then First Consul) appointed Cuvier one of the inspectors-general for establishing lycées in thirty towns. At the same time he was elected Secrétaire perpétuel de l'Académie des Sciences (l'Institut de France), and was consequently brought into contact with all the celebrated men of science in the French capital.

In the same year (1804) that saw Napoleon created Emperor and crowned by Pope Pius VII., Cuvier married a widow—Madame Duvaucel (whose husband was a fermier général, and along with Lavoisier and others suffered death by decapitation). His marriage was a happy one.

From 1809 to 1813 Cuvier was sent on an important educational mission to Holland, Italy, and Germany;