44 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 
seven children were born to him, as in the year (1794) 
the minute referring to his request for an indem- 
nity states: “Il est chargé de sept enfans dont un 
est sur les vaisseaux de la République.’” Another 
son was an artist, as shown by the records of the 
Assembly of the Museum for September 23, 1814, 
when he asked for a chamber in the lodgings of 
Thouin, for the use of his son, “ pezntre.”’ 
Geoffroy St. Hilaire, in 1829, spoke of one of his 
sons, M. Auguste de Lamarck, asa skilful and highly 
esteemed engineer of Ponts-et-Chaussées, then advan- 
tageously situated. 
But man cannot live by scientific researches and 
philosophic meditations alone. The history of La- 
marck’s life is painful from beginning to end. With 
his large family and slender salary he was never free 
from carking cares and want. On the 30 fructidor, 
an II. of the Republic, the National Convention voted 
the sum of 300,000 livres, with which an indemnity 
was to be paid to citizens eminent in literature and 
art. Lamarck had sacrificed much time and doubt- 
less some money in the preparation and publication 
of his works, and he felt that he had a just claim to 
be placed on the list of those who had been useful to 
the Republic, and at the same time could give proof 
of their good citizenship, and of their right to receive 
such indemnity or appropriation. 
Accordingly, in 1795 he sent in a letter, which pos- 
sesses much autobiographical interest, to the Com- 
mittee of Public Instruction, in which he says: 
“ During the twenty-six years that he has lived in 
Paris the citizen Lamarck has unceasingly devoted 
