30 LAMARCK, AIS LIFE AND WORK 
else for him to undertake, to assume charge of the 
collection of invertebrate animals, and to him was 
assigned that enormous, chaotic mass of forms then 
known as molluscs, insects, worms, and microscopic 
animals. Had he continued to teach botany, we 
might never have had the Lamarck of biology and 
biological philosophy. But turned adrift in a world 
almost unexplored, he faced the task with his old- 
time bravery and dogged persistence, and at once 
showed the skill of a master mind in systematic 
work. 
The two new professorships in zodlogy were filled, 
one by Lamarck, previously known as a botanist, and 
the other by the young Etienne Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 
then twenty-two years old, who was at that time a 
student of Haitiy, and in charge of the minerals, be- 
sides teaching mineralogy with especial reference to 
crystallography. 
To Geoffroy was assigned the four classes of verte- 
brates, but in reality he only occupied himself with 
the mammals and birds. Afterwards Lacépéde * took 
charge of the reptiles and fishes. On the other hand, 
Lamarck’s field comprised more than nine-tenths of 
the animal kingdom. Already the collections of in- 
sects, crustacea, worms, molluscs, echinoderms, corals, 
etc., at the Museum were enormous. At this time 
* Bern. Germ. Etienne, Comte de Lacépéde, born in 1756, died 
in 1825, was elected professor of the zodlogy of ‘‘ quadrupedes ovi- 
pares, reptiles, et poissons,” January 12, 1795 (Records of the 
Museum). He was the author of works on amphibia, reptiles, and 
mammals, forming continuations of Buffon’s (/7stotre Naturelle. He 
also published Histoire Naturelle des Poissons (1798-1803), L7istotre 
des Cétacés (1804), and Listoire Naturelle de 1’ Homme (1827), Les 
Ages de la Nature et Histoire de l Espice Humaine, tome 2, 1830. 
