242 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



was received with the unanimous approbation of the 

 scientific world. His 'Fossil Shells of the Neighbour- 

 hood of Paris' a work in which his profound know- 

 ledge of existing shells enabled him to class with 

 certainty the remains of forms that had disappeared 

 thousands of ages ago met also with a favourable 

 reception. 



"Lamarck was fifty years old before he began to 

 study zoology ; and prolonged rniscroscopic examina- 

 tions first fatigued and at length enfeebled his eyesight. 

 The clouds which obscured it gradually thickened, and 

 he became quite blind. Married four times, the father 

 of seven children, he saw his small patrimony and even 

 his earlier savings swallowed up by one of those hazard- 

 ous investments with which promoters impose on the 

 credulity of the public. His small endowment as pro- 

 fessor alone protected him from destitution. Men ot 

 science whom his reputation as a botanist and zoologist 

 had attracted near him, wondered at the manner in 

 which he was neglected. 



##*##* 



"He passed the last ten years of his laborious life 

 in darkness, tended only by the affectionate care of his 

 two daughters. The eldest wrote from his dictation 

 part of the sixth and seventh volumes of his work on 

 the invertebrate animals. From the time her father 

 became confined to his room his daughter never left 

 the house; and when first she did so after his death, 

 she was distressed by the fresh air to which she had 

 been so long a stranger. 



Lamarck died December 18, 1829, at the age of 



