LAMARCK THE ZOOLOGIST i8l 



physiologists, the last-named being the first to pro- 

 pose and use the term " comparative anatomy," while 

 Bichat was the founder of histology and pathological 

 anatomy. There was in fact no prominent systematic 

 zoologist in the interval between Linn^ and Lamarck. 

 In France there were only two zoologists of promi- 

 nence when Lamarck assumed his duties at the Mu- 

 seum. These were Bruguifere the conchologist and 

 Olivier the entomologist. In Germany Hermann was 

 the leading systematic zoologist. We would not for- 

 get the labors of the great German anatomist and 

 physiologist Blumenbach, who was also the founder 

 of anthropology ; nor the German anatomists Tiede- 

 mann, Bojanus, and Carus; nor the embryologist 

 DoUinger. But Lamarck's method and point of view 

 were of a new order — he was much more than a mere 

 systematist. His work in systematic zoology, un- 

 like that of Linn6, and especially of Cuvier, was that of 

 a far higher grade. Lamarck, besides his rigid, analyt- 

 ical, thorough, and comprehensive work on the inver- 

 tebrates, whereby he evolved order and system out of 

 the chaotic mass of forms comprised in the Insects 

 and Vermes of Linnd, was animated with conceptions 

 and theories to which his forerunners and contem- 

 poraries, Geoffroy St. Hilaire excepted, were entire 

 strangers. His tabular view of the classes of the 

 animal kingdom was to his mind a genealogical tree ; 

 his idea of the animal kingdom anticipated and was 

 akin to that of our day. He compares the animal 

 series to a tree with its numerous branches, rather 

 than to a single chain of being. This series, as he 

 expressly states, began with the monad and ended 



