Henri Marie Dnerotay de Blainville, a French naturalist, born at Arques, near Dieppe in Normandy, Sept. 12, 1777, died in Paris, May 1, 1850. In 1794 or 1795 he entered the school of design at Rouen, and in 1796 entered as a pupil the studio of Vincent, the historical painter. He soon began to frequent the lectures on natural history at the jardin des plantes and at the college de France, became one of the most diligent disciples of Cuvier, and finally devoted all his time to the study of human anatomy, obtaining the degree of M. D. in 1808. Daring some years, in concert with the German naturalist Oppel, he gave great attention to the study of reptiles and to myology. He also became an assistant to Cuvier. He was appointed to the chair of anatomy and zoology in the faculty of sciences in 1812, when he produced his celebrated thesis on the ornitho-rhynchus. In 1825 De Blainville was elected successor to Lacepede as a member of the acad-cinv of sciences. At the death of Lamarck, Dec. 18, 1829, the chair of natural history at the jardin des plantes was divided into several professorships, and De Blainville was appointed to the department of mollusca, zoophytes, and worms; and in 1832 he succeeded Cuvier in the chair of comparative anatomy.

He continual the work of Cuvier on the fossils of extinct species; but while the latter had only consulted the skeletons of living species as a means of comparison with fossil species, De Blainville attempted to treat the osteology of all types of organism, living as well as extinct, under the title of Osteographie, ou description iconographique comparee du squelette et du sys-time dentaire des cinq classes d'animaux ter-tebres recents et fossiles. He died, however, before the completion of the work. In his Prod rome d'une nouvelle distribution rneiho-diqut du regne animal(Paris, 1816), he pointed out several modifications in the classification of animals which have since been generally accepted. In his Dictionnaire d'histoire natn-relle he published a remarkable treatise on worms, which marks an epoch in the progress of that branch of science. He also published a work entitled Faune francaise (Paris, 1821, 1830), Manuel de malacologie et de conchyliolo-gie (Strasburg, 1825-7), Cours de physiologic generali et comparee, professe d la faculte des sciences de Paris (1833), and Histoire des sci-ences naturelles au moyen age (Paris, 1845). In the classification of animals De Blainville was of opinion that the external form should be the leading characteristic in forming groups and families of allied species; while other naturalists maintain that the internal structure is of more importance in pointing out affinities and similarities.