256 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWm 



Lamarck in the Jardin des Plantes. After the 

 Revolution the Museum National d'Histoire 

 Naturelle was under a corps of professorial di- 

 rectors. A joint letter, signed by Lamarck "for 

 director" and by Geoffroy, "Professor and Sec- 

 retary of the administration of the Museum of 

 Natural History," reveals the keen desire of 

 these great naturalists for evidence regarding the 

 origin of species. This letter^ was written on Jan- 

 uary 30, 1796, to the naturalist Rembrandt Peale 

 at Philadelphia, inviting the interchange of lit- 

 erature and natural history specimens and re- 

 questing "all the works appearing on Natural 

 History in the United States." 



Give us leave. Sir, to call your attention on the 

 subjects wich we desire to receive first. Those enor- 

 mous bones^ wich are found in great quantity on the 

 borders of the Ohio. The exact knowledge of those 

 objects is more important toward the Theory of the 

 earth, than is generally thought of. . . . We also 

 desire some species of quadrupeds of your climates. 

 They have some conformity with those of the ancient 

 continent. They are even been confounded with one 

 another. Nevertheless we think they differ as to their 

 species. ... It would be interesting to know what 

 degeneration their transplantation has produced on 



iNow in possession of the author. 



^Referring to the American mastodon discovered at Big Bone 

 Lick, Kentucky, which at the time excited the wonder of the sci- 

 entific world. 



