Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution | Page 7

and under the
direct and raking fire of harsh and unrelenting criticism and ridicule
from friend and foe, affords a striking contrast to the moral timidity
shown by Buffon when questioned by the Sorbonne. We can see that
Lamarck was the stuff martyrs are made of, and that had he been tried
for heresy he would have been another Tycho Brahe.
Soon after, de Lamarck was nominated to a lieutenancy; but so glorious
a beginning of his military career was most unexpectedly checked. A
sudden accident forced him to leave the service and entirely change his
course of life. His regiment had been, during peace, sent into garrison,
first at Toulon and then at Monaco. While there a comrade in play
lifted him by the head; this gave rise to an inflammation of the
lymphatic glands of the neck, which, not receiving the necessary
attention on the spot, obliged him to go to Paris for better treatment.
"The united efforts [says Cuvier] of several surgeons met with no better
success, and danger had become very imminent, when our confrère, the
late M. Tenon, with his usual sagacity, recognized the trouble, and put
an end to it by a complicated operation, of which M. de Lamarck
preserved deep scars. This treatment lasted for a year, and, during this
time, the extreme scantiness of his resources confined him to a solitary
life, when he had the leisure to devote himself to meditations."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In the little chapel next the church lies buried, we were told by
M. Duval, a Protestant of the family of de Guillebon, the purchaser
(acquéreur) of the château. Whether the estate is now in the hands of

his heirs we did not ascertain.
[2] As stated by G. de Mortillet, the date of his birth is variously given.
Michaud's Dictionnaire Biographique gives the date April 1; other
authors, April 11; others, the correct one, August 1, 1744. (Lamarck.
Par un Groupe de Transformistes, ses Disciples. L'Homme, iv. p. 289,
1887.)
[3] "Sur la maison de Viella--les Mortiers-brévise et les Montalembert
en Gascogne--et sur le naturaliste Lamarck." Par Hippolyte Masson.
(Revue de Gascogne, xvii., pp. 141-143, 1876.)
[4] Ibid., p. 194.
[5] A small town in southwestern France, near Lourdes and Pau; it is
about eight miles north of Tarbes, in Gascony.
[6] Revue de Gascogne, pp. 264-269, 1876.
[7] The abbé attempts to answer the question as to what place gave
origin to the name of Lamarck, and says:
"The author of the history of Béarn considered the cradle of the race to
have been the freehold of Marca, parish of Gou (Basses-Pyrénées). A
branch of the family established in le Magnoac changed its name of
Marca to that of La Marque." It was M. d'Ossat who gave rise to this
change by addressing his letters to M. de Marca (at the time when he
was preceptor of his nephew), sometimes under the name of M. Marca,
sometimes M. la Marqua, or of M. de la Marca, but more often still
under that of M. de la Marque, "with the object, no doubt, of making
him a Frenchman" ("dans la vue sans doute de le franciser"). (Vie du
Cardinal d'Ossat, tome i., p. 319.)
"To recall their origin, the branch of Magnoac to-day write their name
Marque-Marca. If the Marca of the historian belongs to Béarn, the
Lamarque of the naturalist, an orthographic name in principle, proceeds
from Bigorre, actually chosen (désignée) by Lamarcq, Pontacq, or
Lamarque près Béarn. That the Lamarque of the botanist of the royal

cabinet distinguished himself from all the Lamarques of Béarn or of
Bigorre, which it bears (qu'il gise) to this day in the Hautes-Pyrénées,
Canton d'Ossun, we have many proofs: Aast at some distance, Bourcat
and Couet all near l'Abbaye Laïque, etc. The village so determined is
called in turn Marca, La Marque, Lamarque; names predestined to
several destinations; judge then to the mercy of a botanist, Lamarck,
La Marck, Delamarque, De Lamarck, who shall determine their
number? As to the last, I only explain it by a fantasy of the man who
would de-Bigorrize himself in order to Germanize himself in the hope,
apparently, that at the first utterance of the name people would believe
that he was from the outre Rhin rather than from the borders of Gave or
of Adour. Consequently a hundred times more learned and a hundred
times more worthy of a professorship in the Museum, where Monet
would seem (entrevait) much less than Lamarque."
It may be added that Béarn was an ancient province of southern France
nearly corresponding to the present Department of Basses-Pyrénées. Its
capital was Pau.
[8] We have been unable to ascertain the date when young Lamarck
entered the seminary. On making inquiries in June, 1899, at the Jesuits'
Seminary in Amiens,