158 FROM LAMARCK TO ST. HILAIRE. 



Zoology with such ze al and succejss^. that he almost 

 immediately introduced striking reforms in classifi- 

 cation. The early fruits of Lamarck's zoological 

 studies were not only aTseries 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 r apid de velopment of a. true con ception of the 

 mutability of species,, and of the great law of the 

 origin of species by descent. 



His devotion to the study of , the smal) forms of 

 life, probably with inferior facilities foi^work, for he 

 was extremely poor, gradually^ deprived hi m of the 

 u se of his eyes, and in^iSi g he b eca me comp letely 

 blind. The last two volumes of the first edition of 

 his Histoire Naturelle dcs Animaux sans Vertebres, 

 whichwas 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 convjctjon. 



The development of La marck ^ views \vas, as we 

 have seen above, apparentl y coi ncident jmth his 

 turning_jrom Bo tan y to Zoology. His route of 

 observation lay^ ^iong Comparative^ Zoology and 

 Botany, as Goethe's lay along the Comparative 

 Anatomy and Morphology' of plants and animals. 



