376 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 



Lamarck was born in 1744, and led a (luict, monotonous 

 life, almost pathetic on account of his struggles with poverty, 

 and the lack of encouragement and proper recognition by his 

 contemporaries. His life was rendered more bearable, how- 

 ever, even after he was overtaken by complete blindness, 

 by the intellectual atmosphere that he created for himself, 

 and by the superb confidence and affection of his devoted 

 daughter Comelie, who sustained him and made the truthful 

 prediction that he would be recognized by posterity ('' La 

 paste rite votis honorera^^). 



His Family. — He came of a military family possessing 

 some claims to distinction. The older name of the family 

 had been de Monet, but in the branch to which Lamarck 

 belonged the name had been changed to de Lamarque, and 

 in the days of the first Republic was signed plain I>amarck 

 by the subject of this sketch. Jean Baptiste Lamarck was 

 the eleventh and last child of his parents. The other male 

 members of the family having been provided with military 

 occupations, Jean was selected by his father, although 

 against the lad's own wish, for the clerical profession, and ac- 

 cordingly was placed in the college of the Jesuits at Amiens. 

 He did not, however, develop a taste for theological studies, 

 and after the death of his father in 1760 "nothing could 

 induce the incipient abbe, then seventeen years of age, 

 longer to wear his bands." 



His ancestry asserted itself, and he forsook the college to 

 follow the French army that was then campaigning in Ger- 

 manv. Alountcd on a broken-down horse which he had sue- 

 ceeded in buying with his scanty means, he arrived on the 

 scene of action, a veritable raw recruit, appearing before 

 Colonel Lastic, to whom he had brought a letter of recom- 

 mendation. 



Military Experience. — The Colonel would have liked to 

 be rid of him, but owing to Lamarck's persistence, assigned 



