As soon as Cuvier found himself well established as assistant to M. Mertrud, the professor of comparative anatomy to the Jardin des Plantes, he sent for his old father, then eighty years of age, and for his brother, M. F. Cuvier, to live with him. The first thing he did was to collect all the available specimens of bones and preparations of animals, and he found many hidden away in vaults and which had been collected by Daubenton and Buffon. Other specimens were obtained, and thus the great collection was commenced. In 1796, Cuvier discovered the curious fact that there is naturally red blood in leeches, and in the following year he read a famous paper on the nutrition of insects. Refusing to go to Egypt, as he had his proper work to do at home, for his pupils Dumeril and Duvernoy were working hard for and with him, dissecting and describing, the result was the publication of the first volume of the lessons on comparative anatomy already alluded to. This led to Cuvier being made professor of natural history to the College of France. Of the young professor’s ability there could be no doubt, and everybody was struck with the excellent method of his lectures and books. His mind was essentially an orderly and very contemplative and reasoning one, and his fame soon reached the ears of Napoleon, then first consul. He made Cuvier one of the six inspectors general of education who were to found public schools in some thirty towns in France and what are now called Royal Colleges. Cuvier founded those of Bordeaux, Nice, and Marseilles. In this last-mentioned place he continued his work on marine animals. Whilst Cuvier was performing these very important duties for the state, with great benefit to the towns and credit to himself, he was chosen to be one of the perpetual secretaries to the National Institute, and had a salary given to him for it of two hundred guineas a year. Although this sum was to be well earned, and the secretary had to receive distinguished foreigners at table, a fuss was made about it. Cuvier, however, knew his own value, and insisted on retaining it. The labourer is worthy of his hire, and the sum was less than the salary of a first-class clerk. A great Italian politician once said keep the professors poor. Why? Because he knew that the diffusion of liberal knowledge would be fatal to civil and military tyranny. However, Cuvier gave up his school inspectorship and laboured on at his favourite studies. He lost his father and his brother’s wife died leaving a child, so that Cuvier and his brother were alone. Marriage became a necessity for the rising man, and he was attracted by a lady of great merit, who had suffered both poverty and misfortune. Madame Duvancel was the widow of an official who perished on the scaffold in 1794, and she had some children of her own. Cuvier had a great affection for her and she made him happy, was a great companion, and when he rose to his greatness, she was an admirable helpmate.