He later developed an interest in pathology, being influenced by Guillaume Dupuytren (1777-1835), a friend of Cruveilhier's father.

In 1816 he earned his medical doctorate in Paris, where in 1825 he succeeded Pierre Augustin Béclard (1785–1825) as professor of anatomy.

Puerto Rican pro-independence leader, surgeon and Légion d'honneur laureate, Ramón Emeterio Betances, was one of his prominent students.

He performed extensive research involving the vascular system, being remembered for his studies of phlebitis, which he believed to "dominate all of pathology".

Cruveilhier's name is also associated with several parts of the anatomy; however, these terms have largely been replaced by the modern anatomical nomenclature: