MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 
Among the many eminent French naturalists, whose 
loss to science we have so often had occasion to 
lament during the few past years, the above indivi- 
dual occupied a conspicuous place. He was long 
known in Paris by his public prelections, and his 
numerous writings have procured for him a high 
degree of reputation throughout Europe. In this 
country he is best known by his admirable works on 
invertebrate animals, which may he said to have 
formed a new era in the history of that extensive 
department of the animal kingdom. But his studies 
had a very extensive range; many of the most 
interesting inquiries which for ages have fixed the 
attention of mankind, were the subjects of his 
meditation, and on most of them he formed a 
number of definite ideas which he promulgated 
under the form of theories. Although these specu- 
lations are of a highly fanciful description, and some 
of them greatly to he deprecated on account of their 
hurtful tendency, yet they merit attention as the 
productions of a mind remarkable for originality 
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