37° BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 
Lamarck was born in 1744, and led a quict, monotonous 
life, almost pathetic on account of his struggles with poverty, 
and the lack of encouragement and proper recognition by his 
contemporaries. His life was rendered more bearable, how- 
ever, even after he was overtaken by complete blindness, 
by the intellectual atmosphere that he created for himself, 
and by the superb confidence and affection of his devoted 
daughter Cornélic, who sustained him and made the truthful 
prediction that he would be recognized by posterity (‘ La 
postérité vous honorera”’). 
His Family.—He came of a military family possessing 
some claims to distinction. The older name of the family 
had been de Monet, but in the branch to which Lamarck 
belonged the name had been changed to de Lamarque, and 
in the days of the first Republic was signed plain Lamarck 
by the subject of this sketch. Jean Baptiste Lamarck was 
the eleventh and last child of his parents. The other male 
members of the family having been provided with military 
occupations, Jcan was selected by his father, although 
against the lad’s own wish, for the clerical profession, and ac- 
cordingly was placed in the college of the Jesuits at Amiens. 
He did not, however, develop a taste for theological studies, 
and after the death of his father in 1760 “nothing could 
induce the incipient abbé, then seventeen years of age, 
longer to wear his bands.” 
His ancestry asserted itself, and he forsook the college to 
follow the French army that was then campaigning in Ger- 
many. Mounted on a broken-down horse which he had suc- 
ceeded in buying with his scanty means, he arrived on the 
scene of action, a veritable raw recruit, appearing before 
Colonel Lastic, to whom he had brought a letter of recom- 
mendation. 
Military Experience.—The Colonel would have liked to 
be rid of him, but owing to Lamarck’s persistence, assigned 
