LAMARCK. 



591 



the known kinds, and is particularly copious and 

 instructive in relation to sponges and shell-bearing 

 molluscae. The genera are established with much 

 discrimination, and judiciously characterized by 

 obvious properties, such as form, proportion, na- 

 ture of the surface, and structure. The synonymy 

 is unravelled with great care, and the descriptions, 

 though necessarily often very brief, are in general 

 highly satisfactory. These circumstances have 

 rendered this work the most valuable system that 

 has ever appeared of the invertebrate animals; and 

 it has formed the guide to most authors who have 

 since written on the subject.* 



The phrase invertebrate animals originated with 

 Lamarck, and it expresses, as Cuvier remarks, per- 

 haps the only circumstances in their organization 

 which is common to them all. They were previ- 

 ously known as white-blooded animals, a designation 

 which was soon shown to be improper, by the dis- 

 covery that an entire class (the annelides} possesses 

 red blood. The system of Linnaeus and Bruguiere 

 formed the basis of his course when he first began 

 to lecture on the subject ; he subsequently adopted 

 a new classification, founded on their anatomy, 

 which had been published in 1795. This he after- 

 wards modified in various ways, as new discoveries 

 were made, and as new relations suggested them- 

 selves to him. In his system of invertebrata, form- 

 ing an octavo volume, published in 1810, he adopted 

 the class of Crustacea, and created that of arach- 

 nides, a step which he judged necessary, in conse- 

 quence of some new information that been com- 

 municated to him on the heart and pulmonary sacs 

 of spiders. In a previous work he had admitted 

 the annelides to the rank of a separate class, in 

 consequence of Baron Cuvier's observations on 

 their circulating organs and the colour of their 

 blood, which resembles that of the vertebrate races. 

 Two other classes were created, in his "Philosophi- 

 cal Zoology," viz. the infusoria and the centripedes ; 

 and in this work also he first deviated from the 

 ordinary practice of commencing the arrangement 

 with the most perfectly organized, the inverse or- 

 der being more in accordance vvith his theoretical 

 views, which assumed a gradual progression in the 

 composition of animal organs, proceeding from the 

 most simple to the most complex. 



To the history of fossil shells, Lamarck com- 

 municated a remarkable impulse. This highly im- 

 portant and interesting subject had long attracted 

 the attention of geologists, but owing to the diffi- 

 culties with which it is invested, it still remained 

 in comparative obscurity. One of the facts most 

 desirable to be ascertained in relation to these re- 

 mains, was, whether they were identical with 

 species now living, a point which could be deter- 

 mined only by a careful comparison. Applying to 

 this investigation that profound knowledge which 

 he had acquired of recent shells, Lamarck was en- 

 abled to illustrate the subject in a most satisfactory 

 manner, and to throw light on some of the most 

 anomalous phenomena which it presents to the in- 

 quirer. Besides his extensive acquaintance with 

 the testacea, he enjoyed another advantage for 

 entering upon an inquiry of this nature by residing 

 at Paris, the vicinity of which has long been cele- 

 brated for the number and variety of its fossil pro- 

 ductions. f The result of his investigation ap- 



* The most re -ont and probably the best edition of the Ani- 

 maux sans Vertebres, is in eight volunies octavo, augmented 

 with notes by M. M. Desha^es and Milne Edwards. 



t Cuvier conceives that the basin of Paris contains a greater 



peared in several of the earlier volumes of the 

 Annals of the Museum ; but the memoir was never 

 brought to a conclusion. It was accompanied with 

 a quarto volume of plates, containing figures of 

 great beauty and accuracy. 



Such are the principal subjects to which La- 

 marck's attention was directed, together with some 

 of the results to which his investigations led him. 

 After his establishment in the Museum of Natural 

 History, much of his time was occupied with the 

 objects whose history he was appointed to teach ; 

 and so favourably were his labours in this depart- 

 ment received by the public, that his interest as 

 well as his inclination would have conspired to 

 make him cultivate it to the uttermost. But his 

 exertions received an early check, and were at last 

 entirely stopped by the inroads of a most afflicting 

 calamity. His eyes had long been weak, and, as 

 he advanced in years, they became so diseased, 

 that he was obliged to refrain from using them for 

 the examination of any minute object. Hence it 

 was that he had recourse to the celebrated Latreille 

 to assist him in that part of his system of inverte- 

 brata which related to insects. Notwithstanding 

 every precaution, the disorder increased, and at last 

 produced total blindness, which continued till his 

 death. " This event was the more distressing," 

 says Cuvier, " because it overtook him in such cir- 

 cumstances that he' could obtain none of those 

 means of alleviation which might otherwise have 

 been procured. He had been married four times, 

 and was the father of seven children. The whole 

 of his little patrimony, and even the fruits of his 

 early economy, were lost in one of those hazardous 

 investments which shameless speculators so often 

 hold out as baits to the credulous. His retired life] 

 the consequence of his youthful habits, and attach- 

 ment to systems so little in accordance with the 

 ideas which prevailed in science, were not calcu- 

 lated to recommend him to those who had the 

 power of dispensing favours. When numberless 

 infirmities, brought on by old age, had increased 

 his wants, nearly his whole means of support con- 

 sisted of a small income derived from his chair. 

 The friends of science, attracted by the high repu- 

 tation which his botanical and zoological works had 

 conferred on him, witnessed this with surprise. It 

 appeared to them, that a government which pro- 

 tects the sciences, ought to have provided for the 

 wants of a celebrated individual; but their esteem 

 for him was doubled, when they saw the fortitude 

 with which the illustrious old man bore up against 

 the assaults both of fortune and of nature. They 

 particularly admired the devotedness which he in- 

 spired in such of his children as remained with him. 

 His eldest daughter, entirely devoted to the duties 

 of filial affection for many years, never left him for 

 an instant, readily engaged in every study which 

 might supply his want of sight, wrote to his dic- 

 tation a portion of his last works, and accompanied 

 and supported him as long as he was able to take 

 some exercise. Her sacrifices, indeed, were car- 

 ried to a degree which it is impossible to express; 

 when the father could no longer leave his room, 

 the daughter never left the house. When she 

 afterwards did so, for the first time, she was in- 

 commoded by the free air, the use of which had 

 been so long unfamiliar to her. It is rare to see 



