4 Cuvier's Biographical Memoir of M. de Lamarck. 



with the utmost difficulty. This instance of firmness having been 

 reported to the Marechal, he instantly gave M. de Lamarck a com- 

 mission, although his instructions required him to be very spar- 

 ing in promotions of that nature. Soon after, M. de Lamarck 

 was nominated to a lieutenancy ; but such a successful com- 

 mencement of his military career was not attended with the con- 

 sequences that might have been expected, for a most unfortu- 

 nate accident removed him altogether from the service, and en- 

 tirely altered his destination. When his regiment was in gar- 

 rison at Toulon and Monaco, one of his companions, in play, 

 lifted him by the head, and occasioned a serious derangement in 

 the glands of the neck. He was obliged to repair to Paris for 

 more skilful treatment than these places afforded, but the efforts 

 of the most celebrated surgeons had no effect ; and the danger 

 was become very imminent, when our late associate M. Tenon, 

 with his usual penetration, perceived the nature of the disorder, 

 and effected a cure by a complicated operation, the marks of 

 which always continued visible. This confined him for a year, 

 and during that time, the extreme slenderness of his resources 

 kept him in solitude, which afforded ample leisure for reflection. 



The profession of arms had not caused him to lose sight of 

 the notions of physics he had acquired at college. 



During his stay at Monaco, the singular vegetation of that 

 rocky country had attracted his attention, and the Traite des 

 Plantes Usuelles of Chomel having accidentally fallen into his 

 hands, inspired him with some taste for botany. From his 

 lodging in Paris, which, by his own account, was much higher 

 than accorded with his wishes, the clouds formed almost his only 

 spectacle, and their varied aspects suggested his earliest ideas of 

 meteorology — a subject which could not fail to interest a mind 

 always distinguished for activity and originality. He now be- 

 gan to perceive, as Voltaire has said of Condorcet, that lasting 

 discoveries might confer on him a different kind of celebrity from 

 a company of infantry. 



The resolution which he formed in consequence, was not less 

 firmly adhered to than the first. Reduced to an alimentary pen- 

 sion of 400 francs, he determined to become a doctor, and until 

 he could obtain time for the requisite studies, he laboured assi- 

 duously for his daily bread in the office of a banker. His re- 



4 



