Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution | Page 2

of Darwin's labors, to recognize the originality of Lamarck's views, the vigor with which he asserted their truth, and the heroic manner in which, against adverse and contemptuous criticism, to his dying day he clung to them.
During a residence in Paris in the spring and summer of 1899, I spent my leisure hours in gathering material for this biography. I visited the place of his birth--the little hamlet of Bazentin, near Amiens--and, thanks to the kindness of the schoolmaster of that village, M.?Duval, was shown the house where Lamarck was born, the records in the old parish register at the mairie of the birth of the father of Lamarck and of Lamarck himself. The Jesuit Seminary at Amiens was also visited, in order to obtain traces of his student life there, though the search was unsuccessful.
My thanks are due to Professor A. Giard of Paris for kind assistance in the loan of rare books, for copies of his own essays, especially his Le?on d'Ouverture des Cours de l'��volution des ��tres organis��s, 1888, and in facilitating the work of collecting data. Introduced by him to Professor Hamy, the learned anthropologist and archivist of the Mus��um d'Histoire Naturelle, I was given by him the freest access to the archives in the Maison de?Buffon, which, among other papers, contained the MS. Archives du Mus��um; i.e., the Proc��s verbaux des S��ances tenues par les Officiers du Jardin des Plantes, from 1790 to 1830, bound in vellum, in thirty-four volumes. These were all looked through, though found to contain but little of biographical interest relating to Lamarck, beyond proving that he lived in that ancient edifice from 1793 until his death in 1829. Dr.?Hamy's elaborate history of the last years of the Royal Garden and of the foundation of the Mus��um d'Histoire Naturelle, in the volume commemorating the centennial of the foundation of the Museum, has been of essential service.
My warmest thanks are due to M.?Adrien de?Mortillet, formerly secretary of the Society of Anthropology of Paris, for most essential aid. He kindly gave me a copy of a very rare pamphlet, entitled Lamarck. Par un Groupe de Transformistes, ses Disciples. He also referred me to notices bearing on the genealogy of Lamarck and his family in the Revue de Gascogne for 1876. To him also I am indebted for the privilege of having electrotypes made of the five illustrations in the Lamarck, for copies of the composite portrait of Lamarck by Dr.?Gachet, and also for a photograph of the Acte de Naissance reproduced by the late M.?Salmon.
I have also to acknowledge the kindness shown me by Dr.?J. Deniker, the librarian of the Biblioth��que du Mus��um d'Histoire Naturelle.
I had begun in the museum library, which contains nearly if not every one of Lamarck's publications, to prepare a bibliography of all of Lamarck's writings, when, to my surprise and pleasure, I was presented with a very full and elaborate one by the assistant-librarian, M.?Godefroy Malloisel.
To Professor Edmond Perrier I am indebted for a copy of his valuable Lamarck et le Transformisme Actuel, reprinted from the noble volume commemorative of the centennial of the foundation of the Mus��um d'Histoire Naturelle, which has proved of much use.
Other sources from which biographical details have been taken are Cuvier's ��loge, and the notice of Lamarck, with a list of many of his writings, in the Revue biographique de la Soci��t�� malacologique de France, 1886. This notice, which is illustrated by three portraits of Lamarck, one of which has been reproduced, I was informed by M.?Paul Kleinsieck was prepared by the late J.?R. Bourguignat, the eminent malacologist and anthropologist. The notices by Professor Mathias Duval and by L.?A. Bourguin have been of essential service.
As regards the account of Lamarck's speculative and theoretical views, I have, so far as possible, preferred, by abstracts and translations, to let him tell his own story, rather than to comment at much length myself on points about which the ablest thinkers and students differ so much.
It is hoped that Lamarck's writings referring to the evolution theory may, at no distant date, be reprinted in the original, as they are not bulky and could be comprised in a single volume.
This life is offered with much diffidence, though the pleasure of collecting the materials and of putting them together has been very great.
BROWN UNIVERSITY, PROVIDENCE, R.?I., October, 1901.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. BIRTH, FAMILY, YOUTH, AND MILITARY CAREER 1
II. STUDENT LIFE AND BOTANICAL CAREER 15
III. LAMARCK'S SHARE IN THE REORGANIZATION OF THE JARDIN DES PLANTES AND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 23
IV. PROFESSOR OF INVERTEBRATE ZO?LOGY AT THE MUSEUM 32
V. LAST DAYS AND DEATH 51
VI. POSITION IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE; OPINIONS OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES AND SOME LATER BIOLOGISTS 64
VII. LAMARCK'S WORK IN METEOROLOGY AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE 79
VIII. LAMARCK'S WORK IN GEOLOGY 89
IX. LAMARCK THE FOUNDER OF INVERTEBRATE PAL?ONTOLOGY 124
X. LAMARCK'S OPINIONS ON