148 Sir A. Geikie — Lamarck and Playfair — 



the declaration of peace, he had to leave the Army. Already he 

 had acquired a strong liking for botanical pursuits, and in spite of 

 his struggle with poverty he was able to devote himself with so 

 much ardour and success to these studies that before many years 

 were passed he published, under Buffon's auspices, his " Flore 

 Fran^aise," and was soon acclaimed as one of the most eminent 

 botanists of his day. In watching the pi'ogress of his career we see 

 how, through the terrors of the Revolution, he remained quietly at 

 the post which he had obtained at the Jardin des Plantes ; how he 

 pleaded successfully for the adequate endowment and reorganisation 

 of that institution and of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle ; how at 

 last when 50 years of age he was offered a Professorship at the 

 Museum, not of botany, to which he had till then devoted his life, 

 but of invertebrate zoology, which he had not specially studied ; 

 how, with a courage and self-reliance not less marked than he had 

 shown on the battlefield, he accepted the appointment, and after 

 middle life began to acquire and then to teach what was to him 

 a new science ; and how before the lapse of many years he made 

 himself the most philosophical zoologist of his time, and the pioneer 

 of the modern doctrine of biological evolution. Year after year he 

 continued his indefatigable researches and issued his voluminous 

 publications, until his eyesight gave way, and he spent the last ten 

 years of his life in blindness. But even under this grievous 

 infliction he refused to quit his task. Sustained by the devoted 

 affection of his eldest daughter, to whom he dictated the concluding 

 volume of his immortal " Animaux sans Vertebres," he survived to 

 reach the ripe age of 85. 



During his studies as " Professor of zoology, of insects, worms, 

 and microscopic animals," Lamarck perceived the importance of 

 connecting his investigation of living forms with an examination 

 of the extinct types preserved in the various formations of the 

 earth's crust. He saw that the organic remains in the rocks not 

 merely furnish materials for elucidating the structure and affinities 

 of living animals, but supply data for the interpretation of the 

 ancient history of the globe. So vigorously did he prosecute his 

 researches and so deeply did he leave his mark on this great depart- 

 ment of natural history, that he is now everywhere acknowledged 

 to be not less entitled to the name of founder of Invertebrate 

 Palceontology than his great contemporary Cuvier is to that of 

 founder of the Vertebrate division of that science. It was doubtless 

 in the course of his investigation of fossil organisms that Lamarck's 

 attention became rivetted to the consideration of some of the more 

 important problems in the domain of geolog}'. That he had 

 pondered long and profoundly over them and sought their solution 

 by original methods of his own device was at last revealed to the 

 world by his publication of a treatise to which he gave the name of 

 " Hydrogeologie." This was a small volume of 268 pages which 

 made its appearance at the beginning of the year 1802, eight years 

 after his appointment as Professor at the Museum. It never reached 

 a second edition ; indeed, it would appear to have excited but little 



