THE 



AMERICAN NATURALIST 



Vol. XLII March, 1908 No. 495 



THE LAMARCK MANUSCRIPT IX HARVARD 

 PROFESSOR BASHFORD DEAX 

 Columbia University 

 Lamarck manuscripts are exceedingly rare. For until 

 the last score years Lamarck was ranked as a discredited 

 author, and his writings were thrown aside. Even the 

 autograph collector, to whose nets almost everything is a 

 fish, has hardly taken the pains to preserve his hare 

 signature. The Harvard manuscript, accordingly, is an 

 important document, especially in these days of La- 

 marckian revival. It is holographic, antedating, there- 

 fore, 1818-20, the years when Lamarck's eyesight was 

 lost. It forms together a series of essays and drafts of 

 later work, all in all about ninety leaves, of which fifty 

 have writing on both sides. They are brought together 

 in a volume with marbled sides and morocco back with 

 the legend, "Manuscrits de Lamarck," the binding 

 dating 1830-40. As a frontispiece there is inserted the 

 Langlume lithograph of Alexis Noel's portrait of La- 

 marck (1823). Following this is a table of contents, 

 probably in the hand of the early owner of the manu- 

 script. It reads: 



Manuscrits | de | J. B. P. A. de Lamarck | Membre de l'institut de 

 f ranee, Professenr-admi- nistrateur du Museum d'liisioire nalutvlle, ect. 

 con tenant | . 



