MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 21 



of success, in a profession which he had made so 

 many sacrifices to embrace, promised in time to be 

 realized. But these prospects were speedily over- 

 clouded by an accident which completely put a stop 

 to his military career, and gave a different com- 

 plexion to the whole tenor of his life and habits. 

 Some one of his companions, in sport, had lifted 

 him by the head, and thereby strained so severely 

 the glands of his neck, that he was for some time 

 placed in the greatest danger. After many reme- 

 dies had been tried to no purpose, a cure was at 

 last effected by the celebrated M. Tenon, by means 

 of a complicated operation. But his health had by 

 this time become so much impaired, that after 

 residing for a length of time in Paris in the hope 

 of its amendment, he found it necessary to abandon 

 all intention of rejoining the army. 



In these circumstances it became necessary for 

 him to think of some new occupation, and he seems 

 not to have been long in forming a resolution to 

 study medicine. His pecuniary circumstances, how- 

 ever, were so very limited, consisting of a pension 

 of only 400 francs, that he was obliged in the mean 

 time to employ himself as a clerk in the office of a 

 banker in order to obtain the means of daily sub- 

 sistence. The intervals he spent in study ; and 

 such were the buoyancy and activity of his mind, 

 that even when his prospects were most discou 

 raging, he never seems to have lost the expectation 

 of rising to usefulness and distinction. He reverted 

 with eagerness to the physical studies which he had 



