CH. XXXVIII. LAMARCK— CUVIER. 389 



twice risked his life in saving friends from the terrors of the 

 Revolution; and Cuvier held political appointments both 

 under Napoleon and under Louis Philippe ; but in spite of 

 these duties and interruptions their scientific work was 

 never neglected ; and a great part of the knowledge about 

 plants and animals which we now possess was accumulated 

 during the troublous times of the French revolutions. 



Jean Baptiste de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck, the 

 elder of these three men, was born in 1744 at Bezantin, in 

 Picardy, and a somewhat curious circumstance led him to 

 devote his life to science. His father intended him for the 

 church, but the lad had a passion for the army, and on his 

 father's death, in 1760, set off to Germany, where the French 

 were then fighting, and soon distinguished himself as a volun- 

 teer. Some time afterwards, however, one of his comrades 

 lifted him up by his head in joke, and so strained the glands 

 of the neck that after a very severe illness he was obliged to 

 give up his profession and become a banker's clerk in Paris. 

 He had thus time and opportunity to study natural science, 

 for which he had always had a great liking, and in 1778 he 

 published a small book on botany. Buffbn, who was then 

 at the height of his fame, was pleased with this work, and 

 procured for Lamarck an appointment in the botanical de- 

 partment of the Academic des Sciences. From there he 

 went to the Jardin des Plantes, and eventually became pro- 

 fessor of geology in the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle. 



George Leopold Cuvier, afterwards made Baron Cuvier by 

 Louis XVin., was bom of Swiss parents at Montbeliard, near 

 Be'sangon, in 1769. He, too, was intended for the church, 

 because his parents were not rich and he had an uncle who 

 could help him in that profession ; but Prince Charles of 

 Wurtemberg having heard of his abilities, sent for him and 



