THE PATH OF EVOLUTION 



fellow-officer obliged him to leave the army. After 

 a year's illness and consequent confinement, his 

 necessities forced him to seek some other means of 

 living. He determined to study medicine, support- 

 ing himself meanwhile by employment in a banker's 

 office, his own inherited income not exceeding 400 

 francs. After four years' trial, not liking the practice 

 of medicine, he abandoned himself exclusively to 

 botany. After several years of study he published 

 his " Flore Francaise," in which he introduced a new 

 system of classification. Thanks to the approval and 

 assistance of Buffon and of Cuvier, his work was very 

 successful and had a rapid sale. He received a place 

 in the Botanic Division of the Academic des Sciences. 

 Buffon procured for him the position of Royal 

 Botanist. With the son of Buffon, Lamarck visited 

 the establishments and the learned men of Holland, 

 Germany and Hungary. After his return to France, 

 he contributed the section on Botany to the Encyclo- 

 paedic-Method ique. He was appointed to take charge 

 of the herbarium in the Cabinet of the Royal Gardens, 

 which he held until the Revolution in 1792 broke up 

 all the Societies of Savants. With this event his 

 botanical labors ceased. The following year the 

 Assembly reconstituted the establishment under the 

 title of the Museum of Natural History, leaving the 

 occupants of the places to choose among themselves 



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