50 MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 



racters of an animal, its distinction from vegetables 

 and other natural bodies, and to explain the funda- 

 mental principles of zoology. This introduction 

 may be regarded as furnishing a synoptical view of 

 all the author's peculiar opinions on the origin and 

 developement of living beings, which are illustrated 

 more in detail in separate works. The first five 

 volumes are written entirely by Lamarck, but he 

 was assisted in the part relating to insects by M. 

 Latreille. A portion of the sixth volume and the 

 whole of the seventh, were drawn up by his daughter 

 from his notes and papers, his want of sight pre- 

 venting him from undertaking that labour himself; 

 and that part of the sixth, which relates to the 

 mytilaces, rnalliaces, pectinides, and ostraces, is 

 written by M. Valenciennes. The first part was 

 published in 1815, and the other parts appeared at 

 intervals up to 1822, when the whole was com- 

 pleted. Besides a luminous and comprehensive 

 account of the general history of the different groups 

 and genera, the principal species are cited and 

 briefly characterized, with their synonymes, reference 

 to figures, and localities. The enumeration of species 

 sometimes includes all the known kinds, and is 

 particularly copious and instructive in relation to 

 sponges and shell-bearing molluscae. The genera 

 are established with much discrimination, and ju- 

 diciously characterized by obvious properties, such 

 as form, proportion, nature of the surface, and 

 structure. The synonymy is unravelled with great 

 care, and the descriptions, though necessarily often 



