LIFE xix 



him into immediate fame. In 1779 he was elected into the 

 Academy of Sciences over the head of Descemet. 



Two years later Buifon obtained for Lamarck a commis- 

 sion from the king to visit a number of foreign botanical 

 gardens and museums. In company with Buffon's son he 

 travelled through Germany, Hungary and Holland, collecting 

 rare plants, meeting eminent foreign botanists, and making 

 notes for the use of the Jardin du Roi at Paris. On his 

 return in 1782, when he was 38, he still had no salaried 

 position, but was shortly afterwards appointed keeper of 

 the Herbarium at the Jardin du Roi, with the wretched 

 salary of 1000 francs a year. But even this position was 

 very insecure, and in 1790 its suppression was recommended 

 by the Comité des Finances to the Assemblée Nationale. 

 Lamarck published two pamphlets to emphasise the necessity 

 for continuing the office ; to state his own claims for being 

 restored to it ; and to submit to the Assemblée a general 

 scheme for the reorganisation of the Jardin du Roi, by which 

 it should become of general use to science, the arts and 

 commerce. 



For another two or three years he appears to have held 

 some botanical position in the Jardin du Roi, or, as it became 

 about this time, the Jardin des Plantes. But at last, in 1793, 

 the scheme of reorganisation was carried by the National 

 Convention, and the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle was founded. 



There is not much clue to Lamarck's views on the Revolu- 

 tion, although it is stated by de Mortillet that the change 

 of name of the Jardin du Roi was at the instigation of 

 Lamarck. There is no doubt, moreover, that Lamarck's 

 scheme of reorganisation, written in 1790, was to a great 

 extent embodied in the scheme actually voted by the Con- 

 vention three years later : under which the Muséum 

 d'Histoire Naturelle received the constitution which it 

 still possesses at the present day. Two chairs of zoology 

 were created : one of which was devoted to mammals, birds, 

 reptiles and fishes, while the other was devoted to the 

 *' inferior animals " (the insects and worms of Linnaeus), 



