Pe AC i 
ALTHOUGH it is now a century since Lamarck 
published the germs of his theory, it is perhaps only 
within the past fifty years that the scientific world 
and the general public have become familiar with the 
name of Lamarck and of Lamarckism. 
The rise and rehabilitation of the Lamarckian the- 
ory of organic evolution, so that it has become a 
rival of Darwinism; the prevalence of these views in 
the United States, Germany, England, and especially 
in France, where its author is justly regarded as the 
real founder of organic evolution, has invested his 
name with a new interest, and led to a desire to learn 
some of the details of his life and work, and of his 
theory as he unfolded it in 1800 and subsequent 
years, and finally expounded it in 1809. ‘Ene tune 
seems ripe, therefore, for a more extended sketch of 
Lamarck and his theory, as well as of his work asa 
philosophical biologist, than has yet appeared. 
But the seeker after the details of his life is baffled 
by the general ignorance about the man—his ante- 
cedents, his parentage, the date of his birth, his early 
training and education, his work as a professor in the 
Jardin des Plantes, the house he lived in, the place 
of his burial, and his relations to his scientific con- 
temporaries. 
Except the éoges of Geoffroy St. Hilaire and Cuvier, 
