PROFESSOR OF INVERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY 



47 



Saint-Samson, in the Department of Seine-et-Oise, 

 not far to the northward of Beauvais, and about fifty 

 miles from Paris. It is probable that as a proprietor 

 of a landed property he passed the summer season, 

 or a part of it, on this estate. 



This request was, we may believe, made from no 

 unworthy or mercenary motive, but because he 

 thought that such an indemnity was his due. Some 

 years after (in 1809) the chair of zoology, newly 

 formed by the Faculty des Sciences in Paris, was 

 offered to him. Desirable as the salary would have 

 been in his straitened circumstances, he modestly re- 

 fused the offer, because he felt unable at that time of 

 life (he was, however, but sixty-five years of age) to 

 make the studies required worthily to occupy the 

 position. 



One of Lamarck's projects, which he was never 

 able to carry out, for it was even then quite beyond 

 the powers of any man single-handed to undertake, was 

 his Systime de la Nature. We will let him describe it 

 in his own words, especially since the account is some- 

 what autobiographical. It is the second memoir he 

 addressed to the Committee of Public Instruction of 

 the National Convention, dated 4 vend^miaire, I'an 

 111.(1795): 



" In my first memoir I have given you an account of 

 the works which I have published and of those which I 

 have undertaken to contribute to the progress of natu- 

 ral history ; also of the travels and researches which I 

 have made. 



" But for a long time I have had in view a very im- 

 portant work — ^perhaps better adapted for education 



