44 



LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



seven children were born to him, as in the year (1794) 

 the minute referring to his request for an indem- 

 nity states : " II est charg6 de sept enfans dont un 

 est sur les vaisseaux de la Rdpublique." Another 

 son was an artist, as shown by the records of the 

 Assembly of the Museum for September 23, 1814, 

 when he asked for a chamber in the lodgings of 

 Thouin, for the use of his son, " peintre." 



Geoffroy St. Hilaire, in 1829, spoke of one of his 

 sons, M. Auguste de Lamarck, as a skilful and highly 

 esteemed engineer of Ponts-et-Chauss6es, then advan- 

 tageously situated. 



But man cannot live by scientific researches and 

 philosophic meditations alone. The history of La- 

 marck's life is painful from beginning to end. With 

 his large family and slender salary he was never free 

 from carking cares and want. On the 30 fructidor, 

 an IL of the Republic, the National Convention voted 

 the sum of 300,000 livres, with which an indemnity 

 was to be paid to citizens eminent in literature and 

 art. Lamarck had sacrificed much time and doubt- 

 less some money in the preparation and publication 

 of his works, and he felt that he had a just claim to 

 be placed on the list of those who had been useful to 

 the Republic, and at the same time could give proof 

 of their good citizenship, and of their right to receive 1 

 such indemnity or appropriation. 



Accordingly, in 1795 he sent in a letter, which pos- 

 sesses much autobiographical interest, to the Com- 

 mittee of Public Instruction, in which he says : 



" During the twenty-six years that he has lived in 

 Paris the citizen Lamarck has unceasingly devoted 



