56 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



trast to the daughters of the blind Milton, whose 

 domestic life was rendered unhappy by their unduti- 

 fulness, as they were impatient of the restraint and 

 labors his blindness had imposed upon them/^ 



Besides this, the seventh volume is a voluminous 

 scientific work, filled with very dry special details, 

 making the labor of writing out from dictation, of 

 corrections and preparation for the press, most weari- 

 some and exhausting, to say nothing of the correc- 

 tions of the proof-sheets, a task which probably fell 

 to her — work enough to break down the health of a 

 strong man. 



It was a natural and becoming thing for the As- 

 sembly of Professors of the Museum, in view of the 

 " malheureuse position de la famille," to vote to give 

 her employment in the botanical laboratory in arrang- 

 ing and pasting the dried plants, with a salary of i,000 

 francs. 



Of the last illness of Lamarck, and the nature of 

 the sickness to which he finally succumbed, there is 

 no account. It is probable that, enfeebled by the 

 weakness of extreme old age, he gradually sank away 

 without suffering from any acute disease. 



The exact date of his death has been ascertained 

 by Dr. Mondifere,* with the aid of M. Saint-Joanny, 

 archiviste du Department de la Seine, who made 

 special search for the record. The " acte " states that 

 December 28, 1829, Lamarck, then a widower, died 

 in the Jardin du Roi, at the age of eighty-five years. 



The obsequies, as stated in the Moniteur Universel 



* See, for the Acte de d/ch, V Homme, iv. p. 289, and Lamarck. 

 Par un Groups de Trajisformistes, etc., p. 24. 



