Essay ok the theory of the earth by baron g cuvier perpetual secretary of the french institute professor and administrator of the museum of natural history geological illustrations. Essay on the theory of the earth by georges cuvier robert jameson samuel latham mitchill. Guided by the principle of correlation that all the parts of an animal must cohere and by analogy with living species cuvier boldly reconstructed extinct creatures from the incomplete skeletons he unearthed this process is described in his essay on the theory of the earth. The essay on the theory of the earth now translated is the introductory part of the great work of cuvier the subject of the deluge forms a principal object of this elegant discourse after describing the principal results at which the theory of the earth in his opinion has