MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 



Among the many eminent French naturalists, whose 

 loss to science we have so often had occasion to 

 lament during the few past years, the above indivi- 

 dual occupied a conspicuous place. He was long 

 known in Paris by his public prelections, and his 

 numerous writings have procured for him a high 

 degree of reputation throughout Europe. In this 

 country he is best known by his admirable works on 

 invertebrate animals, which may be said to have 

 formed a new era in the history of that extensive 

 department of the animal kingdom. But his studies 

 had a very extensive range; many of the most 

 interesting inquiries which for ages have fixed the 

 attention of mankind, were the subjects of his 

 meditation, and on most of them he fonned a 

 number of definite ideas which he promulgated 

 under the form of theories. Although these specu- 

 lations are of a highly fanciful description, and some 

 of them greatly to be deprecated on account of their 

 hurtful tendency, yet they merit attention as the 

 productions of a mind remarkable for originality 



VOL. XXXI. B 



