In 1733 Lamarck had been appointed assietaut to Daubenton in the 'Cabinet du Jardin du Rol,' where he was particularly intrusted with the charge of the vegetable department. Here nothing could disturb him from his peaceful occupations and studies, and he remained unmolested amidst all the troubles and horrors of the revolution. During the reign of terror he proposed a plan for orgnuising the Museum, and though little attentiou was paid to it at the time, ho had afterwards the satisfaction to see it realised in the establishment of the institution of the 3luseum iu 1793. But notwithstauding his talents and labours, Lamarck was near being forgotten among the professors of the new institution. Botany was the only science which he was well qualified to tench, and in this department Desfoutaines and Jussieu were appointed to the new chairs. The subject of zoology only remained, to which, with the exceptiou of conchology, Lamarck had paid little atteutiou. This branch was divided into several sections : the vcrtebratcd animals were given to 31. Etienne Geoffrey, since known as the illustrious Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, who nftcrwarde shared this department with M. Lacepbdo, who was then absent and persecuted; tho latter undertook the reptiles and fishes. The remaining elastics of the animal kingdom, comprising all the Invert& trata, which were then cousidered of little interest, were left to Lamarck, who, putting forth all his zeal in their investigation, and all his talents in their classification and description, showed that they are almost as complicated in structure and interesting in history, and incomparably more numerous, than the beings higher in the scale of creation. The 'Systeme des Animaux sans Vertebres: published in 1801, was the fruit of his profound researches, and laid the foundation of his greater work, the Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans Ver tebres,' published at Paris from 1815 to 1822 in 7 vols. 8vo. This is the most valuable of all his labours, and ranks among the first modern works on natural history. Lamarck commenced his lectures in the Museum in 1794, being then fifty years old, and ha continued to deliver them up to 1818, when, becoming almost blind and very infirm, he was obliged to resign, and was replaced by one of his colleagues in the Institute, M. Latreille. His eyes becoming affected during the compi lation of his last work, the Memeires sur lee Coquilles,' published in the 'Annales des Museum,' he was assisted in the bivalves by 31. Valenciennes, and in the remaining classes by hie eldest daughter, 31ademoiaello Lamarck. He died in Paris, in December 1829, at the advanced age of eighty-six.
Lamarck is chiefly known in this country by his excellent arrange ment of the Conchifera, or Testaceous Mollusca, iu which department he made eo great a change that be left comparatively little to be done by those who came after him ; but though we admire the talents, judgment, industry, and extensive knowledge which this able naturalist possessed, we must regret the absurd and fanciful theories which he introduced into his writings and lectures. He supposed that all beings, from the lowest to the highest forme, were progres sively developed from similar living microscopic particles. This may be called the theory of metamorphosis, according to which a formative substance is held to exist, but is allowed to change its form in order to be converted into a new being. He was also an advocate of the doctrine of spontaneous generation; and, according to his theory, it was only necessary to suppose a soft gelatiuous mass of amorphous but organic matter to become traversed by surrounding fluids in order to produce a permanent living movement or growth : if the mass was destitute of irritability, it became tho type of vegetable life ; if it possessed that property, animal. Afterwards he pretended that use and circumstances determined the existence of new organs, which rendered the beings more or less perfect. These principles are only a continuation of those which 3Iaillet and Buffos had before promulgated.
Iu his great work he adopts the same theories: he divides the animal kingdom into three classes, the Apathiques,' the ' Seneibles; and the Intelligente ; and after having followed the order of progression by which nature conducts the different beings to perfection, he regards intelligence solely as the expression of the will of the Supreme Being. These theories are inconsistent even with his own words, and are almost too ridiculous to be repeated. Lamarck wrote many other works and papers.
• LA31AltTINE, ALPHONSE (original namo, Du PRAT), was born at Macon, in the province of Bourgogne (department of Saone-et Loire), France, on the 21st of October 1792. His father was a cavalry major in the royal service ; his mother was the daughter of a lady who had been under-governess in the family of the Duke of Orleans. The infant recollections of Lamartine go back to the scenes of the Reign of Terror, when his father was imprisoned as a royalist. After the fall of Robespierre his family retired into country seclusion at 31illey ; and here, and subsequently at the College of the Peres de la Foi at Belly, Lamartine was educated. After a short residence in Lyon, and a tour in Italy, he took up his abode in Paris, where he chiefly resided daring the period of the empire, preparing himself by study, efforts in verse, and social amusements, for his future career. Inheriting the royalist or Bourbon sympathies of his family, he catered the military service of Louis XVIII. on Napoleon's fall and exile to Elba ; but after the Hundred Days and the final confirmation of Louis XVIIL on the throne, he quitted the army and became a journalist. In 1818 he made a second tour in Italy. The year 1820 however was the beginning of his fame : in that year appeared his ' Meditations Poetiques.' French literature had been so long destitute of anything like impassioned or sentimental poetry, except what came in the form of translations from Byron, that this work was received with prodigious eagerness. Within four years 45,000 copies were sold ; and the author was bailed as a new French poet of an order different entirely from that of Beranger Beranger being the poet of the empire and revolntion—Lamartine of royalty and religion, and a revived spiritualism, like that of De Maistre. The government of Lonis XVII L, blind as it was in such matters, saw the advantage of promoting a man like Du Prat, and he was appointed attache to the French embassy at Florence. Here he resided, first as attache, and afterwards as charge d'affaires, till the eve of the revolution of 1830, except during a short time when he held the secretaryship of the French embassy in London. His visit to England led to his marriage with an English lady of large fortune ; and about the same time a wealthy uncle bequeathed him a considerable amount of property ou the condition that he should assume the name of Lamartine. While in Florence ho was wounded in a duel with General (then Colonel) Pepe, since so distinguished as an Italian patriot—the quarrel arising out of some remarks of Lamartine derogatory to the national character of the Italians. At Florence also he composed a variety of poetical works, which were published successively: his 'Nouvelles Meditations,' published in 1823, and which were less successful than the first ; his 'Mort de Secrete,' published a year or two later, and of which an English translation appeared in 1829 ; his Dernier Chant du peleri nage d'Harold ' (` Last Canto of Childs Harold's Pilgrimage '), pub lished in 1827 and translated into English (iu which work the expressions occurred which led to the duel with Pepe); his 'Epltres;' and finally, his 'Harmonies Poetiques et Religiauses.' In all these works there breathed the same ardour of religious sentiment, the same hatred of revolution and of the empire, and the same spirit of loyalty to the Church and to the Bourbons which had distinguished his first literary appearance.