Frédéric Cuvier, younger brother of France’s famous zoologist and comparative anatomist, Georges Cuvier, was the first zoologist to seek to establish an institutional science of animal psychology. He did so in his tenure (1803–1837) as superintendent of the menagerie of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, the first public, metropolitan zoo. That setting simultaneously inspired and constrained his efforts. While the Museum’s zoologists worked with dead specimens, Cuvier sought to expand zoology’s purview and make the menagerie a legitimate site for advancing science. He aimed to study the mental faculties and behavior of the menagerie’s mammals, creating a comparative psychology that would inform human psychology and further the art of training animals. He insisted on a distinct and unbridgeable gap between the human and animal mind, and he rejected the idea of evolution, but he championed the concept of the inheritance of acquired characters. His efforts were hampered by his animal subjects’ cramped conditions of existence, his subordinate position at an institution that prioritized dead specimens, the multiple responsibilities of his post, and other work that took his attention away from behavioral research. His work compares with the work of twentieth-century ethologists and comparative psychologists in diverse and interesting ways. This paper emphasizes the value of understanding Cuvier in his own historical context but also suggests that when comparative psychologists look for early pioneers in their field, Frédéric Cuvier’s credentials outshine those of Pierre Flourens.
Richard W. Burkhardt (Fri,) studied this question.