The division spread and extended to all countries where any thought was given to the subjects under debate. Geoffroy was highly applauded by Goethe, who declared the discussion a very important one for science, and made it the subject of the last lines he ever wrote. The controversy was resumed in 1832, and terminated only with the death of Cuvier. Geoffroy sometimes appeared overcome by the ability and brilliancy of his antagonist, but he never gave up, and time has rendered its verdict that, on the essential points, he was not in the wrong.
The Revolution of July occurred in the midst of the discussions in the Academy, and Geoffroy, who sympathized with the popular movement, again distinguished himself, as he had done in the previous Revolution, by an act of hospitality to the clergy, in giving shelter to the Archbishop of Paris, who was in danger of violence.
When Cuvier died, every one hastened to sound the praises of the genius of the great anatomist. Geoffroy ventured upon a criticism of his views on fossil remains and regarding the revolutions of the globe, and was accused of attacking the fame of his late antagonist. Deeply wounded at so unjust an imputation, he gave up the work that had provoked it, saying: "It would perhaps be best to have courage or wisdom enough to pay no attention to such objections. But the question now concerns one of the glories of France, the first zoölogist of our age. It is for posterity, if it deigns to concern itself with the strifes of this period, to do justice to my adversaries and myself." He was stricken with blindness in July, 1840, and with paralysis a few months afterward. He endured the infirmities of old age with great resignation, and preserved to the last the serenity of a good man and a great mind—or, as Edgar Quinet remarks of him, "he approached unveiled truth with a cheerful face, and descended without fear into eternal knowledge."
The list of the works of Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire would be a very full one if all were included. Besides the larger works which he composed, or in the composition of which he was associated, the catalogue of the principal only of the papers he presented to learned societies occupies a full page in the "Biographie Générale." His most important publications are the "Philosophic Anatomique" (2 vols., 1818-1820), which contains the exposition of his theory; "Principles de la Philosophic Zoölogique" ("Principles of Zoölogical Philosophy," 1830), which gives a synopsis of his discussions with Cuvier; "Études Progressives d'un Naturalist" ("Progressive Studies of a Naturalist," 1835); "Notions de Philosophic Naturelle" ("Ideas of Natural Philosophy," 1835); and, in conjunction with Frédéric Cuvier, "Histoire Naturel des Mammifères," ("Natural History of Mammals," 3 vols., 1820-1842). Among the best works about him are the "Life," by his son Isidore; the "Eulogy," by M. Flourens; and a sketch in the appendix to De Quatrefages's "Rambles of a Naturalist."
