THEORIES OF LAMARCK AND DARWIN 371 
him to a company; and, being mounted, Lamarck took rank 
as a sergeant. During his first engagement his company 
was exposed to the direct fire of the enemy, and the officers 
one after another were shot until Lamarck by order of suc- 
cession was in command of the fourteen remaining gren- 
adiers. Although the French army retreated, Lamarck 
refused to move with his squad until he received directions 
from headquarters to retire. In this his first battle he 
showed the courage and the independence that characterized 
him in later years. 
Adopts Natural Science.—-An injury to the glands of the 
neck, resulting from being lifted by the head in sport by one 
of his comrades, unfitted him for military life, and he went to 
Paris and began the study of medicine, supporting himself 
in the mean time by working as a bank clerk. Jt was in his 
medical course of four years’ severe study that Lamarck 
received the exact training that was needed to convert his 
enthusiastic love for science into the working powers of an 
investigator. He became especially interested in botany, 
and, after a chance interview with Rousseau, he determined 
to follow the ruling passion of his nature and devote himself 
to natural science. After about nine years’ work he published, 
in 1778, his Flora of France, and in due course was appointed 
to a post in botany in the Academy of Sciences. He did not 
hold this position long, but left it to travel with the sons 
of Buffon as their instructor. This agreeable occupation 
extended over two vears, and he then returned to Paris, and 
soon after was made keeper of the herbarium in the Royal 
Garden, a subordinate position entirely beneath his merits. 
Lamarck held this poorly paid position for several years, and 
was finally relieved by being appointed a professor in the 
newly established Jardin des Plantes. 
Garden (Jardin du Roi) into the Jardin des Plantes. When, 
