96 On the Genus Amathia of Lamouroux, 



in Languedoc, in 1779, and was at -first a shopkeeper; but 

 from the assiduity with which he gave himself to the study 

 of botany, was nominated Professor to the Faculty of Sciences 

 at Caen. His first work of any pretension is the Histoire 

 Generate des Polypiers Goralligenes Flexibles, 1 vol., 8vo ; 

 Caen, 1816. Another amended work, entitled Exposition 

 Methodique des Genres de VOrdre des Polypiers, was pub- 

 lished in 1821, and in this we find reproduced the beautiful 

 plates of Ellis, which Solander edited.* There has been 

 but scant justice done to Lamouroux, and his engravings 

 have been found fault with. For my part, I must say the 

 figures seem to be excellent, and executed with fidelity. 

 For the smaller species, no doubt, allowance must be made 

 for the imperfect microscopes at the disposal of naturalists ; 

 and thus, it may be, that the more minute organs were 

 misunderstood. It may be, also, that some of the 

 species will never be recognised. On the whole, every 

 one must admit that the work of Lamouroux is one 

 of the very valuable contributions to the knowledge of 

 Polyzoa which appeared in the commencement of this 

 century. It is not my intention to institute a comparison 

 between his work and that of Lamarck. As far as the value 

 of the systems goes, this has been very ably and satisfactorily 

 done by Dr. George Johnston, in his admirable History of 

 British Zoophytes, Vol. I., p. 446.f It is sufficient for us to 

 know that neither system is followed now, though the names 

 of Lamarck for the most part survive. In one respect, how- 

 ever, I think that the accuracy of Dr. Johnston seems to be 

 at fault. He places the system of Lamouroux with the date 

 1821 above it, and the system of Lamarck with the date 

 1816 ; but the first publication of Lamouroux was long 

 anterior to that of Lamarck. The history of it is this : — In 

 1810 Lamouroux presented his first memoir on this subject 

 to the Institute of France. In 1812 he sent to M. (after- 

 wards Baron) Cuvier the duplicates of his collection, and 

 he named the collection of M. de Lamarck for him, and, as 

 he himself says, communicated his observations to several 

 friends of his who were naturalists. In 1813 he sent to 

 Mons. Bosc a more complete system of classification for 



* Lamouroux died in 1825. Blainville, who blames his drawings, was not 

 above copying a good many of them. 



f A book which is almost as useful in Australia as in Europe. Full of 

 observations of the highest interest. London, Van Voorst; 2 vols,, 8vo, 

 1847. 



