CHAPTER V 



LAST DAYS AND DEATH 



Lamarck's life was saddened and embittered by 

 the loss of four wives, and the pangs of losing three 

 of his children ; * also by the rigid economy he had 

 to practise and the unending poverty of his whole 

 existence. A very heavy blow to him and to science 

 was the loss, at an advanced age, of his eyesight. 



It was, apparently, not a sudden attack of blind- 

 ness, for we have hints that at times he had to call 

 in Latreille and others to aid him in the study of the 

 insects. The continuous use of the magnifying lens 

 and the microscope, probably, was the cause of en- 

 feebled eyesight, resulting in complete loss of vision. 

 Duval f states that he passed the last ten years of his 

 life in darkness ; that his loss of sight gradually came 

 on until he became completely blind. 



* I have been unable to ascertain the names of any of his wives, or 

 of his children, except his daughter, Cornelie. 



f " L'examen minutieux de petits animaux, analyses a I'aide d'in- 

 struments grossissants, fatigua, puis affaiblait, sa vue. Bientot il fut 

 completement aveugle. II passa les dix derniers annees de sa vie 

 plonge dans les tenebres, entoure des soins de ses deux filles, a I'une 

 desquelles il dictait le dernier volume de son Histoire des Animaux 

 sans Vertebres" — Le Trans formiste Lamarck, Bull, Soc. Anthro- 

 pologie, xii., 1889, p. 341. Cuvier, also, in his history of the progress 

 of natural science for i8ig, remarks: " M. de La Marck, malgre 

 I'affoiblissement total de sa vue, poursuit avec un courage inalterable 

 la continuation de son grand ouvrage sur les animaux sans vertebres'' 

 (p. 406). 



