6 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



born and lived through his infancy and early boy- |^^i 

 hood.* 



If his parents did not possess an ample fortune, 

 they were blessed with a numerous progeny, for La- 

 marck was the eleventh and youngest child, and 

 seems to have survived all the others. Biographers 

 have differed as to the date of the birth of Lamarck.f 

 Happily the exact date had been ascertained through 

 the researches of M. Philippe Salmon ; and M. Duval 

 kindly showed us in the thin volume of records, with 

 its tattered and torn leaves, the register of the Acte de 

 Naissance, and made a copy of it, as follows : 



Extrait du Registre aux Actes de Baptime de la Com- 

 mune de Bazentin, pour I'Ann^e 1744. 



L'an mil sept cent quarante-quatre, le premier aoiit 

 est n€ en legitime mariage et le lendemain a 6t6 

 baptist par moy cur6 soussignd Jean Baptiste Pierre 

 Antoine, fils de Messire Jacques Philippe de Monet, 

 chevalier de Lamarck, seigneur des Bazentin grand 

 et petit et de haute et puissante Dame Marie Fran- 

 goise de Fontaine demeurant en leur chateau de Ba- 

 zentin le petit, son parrain a €t€ Messire Jean Bap- 

 tiste de Fossd, pretre-chanoine de I'dglise colldgiale 

 de St. Farcy de Pdronne, y demeurant, sa marraine 

 Dame Antoinette Fran^oise de Bucy, nifece de Messire 

 Louis Joseph Michelet, chevalier, ancien commissaire 



* In the little chapel next the church lies buried, we were told by 

 M. Duval, a Protestant of the family of de Guillebon, the purchaser 

 (acqiiireur) of the ch&teau. Whether the estate is now in the hands 

 of his heirs we did not ascertain. 



f As stated by G. de Mortillet, the date of his birth is variously 

 given. Michaud's Dictionnaire Biographique gives the date April 

 I ; other authors, April ii ; others, the correct one, August i, 1744, 

 {Lamarck. Par un Groupede Trans formistes, ses Disciples. V Homme 

 iv. p. 28g, 1887.) 



