d by it was called _de
Jardin de la Croix_. It was originally the first structure erected on
the south side of the Jardin du Roi.

[38] In the "avertissement" to his _Systeme des Animaux sans Vertebres_
(1801), after stating that he had at his disposition the magnificent
collection of invertebrate animals of the museum, he refers to his
private collection as follows: "Et une autre assez riche que j'ai formee
moi-meme par pres de trente annees de recherches," p. vii. Afterwards he
formed another collection of shells named according to his system, and
containing a part of the types described in his _Histoire Naturelle des
Animaux sans Vertebres_ and in his minor articles. This collection the
government did not acquire, and it is now in the museum at Geneva. The
Paris museum, however, possesses a good many of the Lamarckian types,
which are on exhibition (Perrier, _l. c._, p. 20).

[39] _Lettre du Ministre des Finances (de Ramel) au Ministre de
l'Interieur_ (13 pr. an V.). See Perrier, _l. c._, p. 20.

CHAPTER V

LAST DAYS AND DEATH

Lamarck's life was saddened and embittered by the loss of four wives,
and the pangs of losing three of his children;[40] also by the rigid
economy he had to practise and the unending poverty of his whole
existence. A very heavy blow to him and to science was the loss, at an
advanced age, of his eyesight.

It was, apparently, not a sudden attack of blindness, for we have hints
that at times he had to call in Latreille and others to aid him in the
study of the insects. The continuous use of the magnifying lens and the
microscope, probably, was the cause of enfeebled eyesight, resulting in
complete loss of vision. Duval[41] states that he passed the last ten
years of his life in darkness; that his loss of sight gradually came on
until he became completely blind.

In the reports of the meetings of the Board of Professors there is but
one reference to his blindness. Previous to this we find that, at his
last appearance at these sessions--_i.e._, April 19, 1825--since his
condition did not permit him to give his course of lectures, he had
asked M. Latreille to fill his place; but such was the latter's health,
he proposed that M. Audouin, sub-librarian of the French Institute,
should lecture in his stead, on the invertebrate animals. This was
agreed to.

The next reference, and the only explicit one, is that in the records
for May 23, 1826, as follows: "Vu la cecite dont M. de Lamar