158 FROM LAMARCK TO ST. HILAIRE. 



Zoology with such zeal and success, that he almost 

 immediately introduced striking reforms in classifi- 

 cation. The early fruits of Lamarck's zoological 

 studies were not only a series of very. valuable addi- 

 tions to the classification of animals, such as the 

 divisions, Vertebrata and Invertebrata, and the 

 groups, Crustacea, Arachnida, and Annelida, but 

 the rapid development of a true conception of the 

 mutability of species, and of the great law of the 

 origin of species by descent. 



His devotion to the study of the small forms of 

 life, probably with inferior facilities for work, for he 

 was extremely poor, gradually deprived him of the 

 use of his eyes, and in 1819 he became completely 

 blind. The last two volumes of the first edition of 

 his Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans Verfebres, 

 which was begun in 1816 and completed in 1822, 

 was carried on by dictation to his daughter, who 

 showed him the greatest affection; after Lamarck 

 was confined to his room, it is said she never left the 

 house. Lamarck was thus saddened in his old age 

 by extreme poverty and by the harsh reception of 

 his transmutation theories, in the truth of which he 

 felt the most absolute conviction. 



The development of Lamarck's views was, as we 

 have seen above, apparently coincident with his 

 turning from Botany to Zoology. His route of 

 observation lay along Comparative Zoology and 

 Botany, as Goethe's lay along the Comparative 

 Anatomy and Morphology of plants and animals. 



