reforms in zooelogical classification, especially in the
foundation and limitation of certain classes, an insight no one before
him had evinced. To him and to Latreille much of the value of the _Regne
Animal_ of Cuvier, as regards invertebrate classes, is due.

The exact title of the chair held by Lamarck is given in the _Etat_ of
persons attached to the National Museum of Natural History at the date
of the 1er messidor, an II. of the Republic (1794), where he is
mentioned as follows: "LAMARCK--fifty years old; married for the second
time; wife _enceinte_; six children; professor of zooelogy, of insects,
of worms, and microscopic animals." His salary, like that of the other
professors, was put at 2,868 livres, 6 sous, 8 deniers.[34]

Etienne Geoffroy St. Hilaire[35] has related how the professorship was
given to Lamarck.

"The law of 1793 had prescribed that all parts of the natural
sciences should be equally taught. The insects, shells, and an
infinity of organisms--a portion of creation still almost
unknown--remained to be treated in such a course. A desire to comply
with the wishes of his colleagues, members of the administration,
and without doubt, also, the consciousness of his powers as an
investigator, determined M. de Lamarck: this task, so great, and
which would tend to lead him into numberless researches; this
friendless, unthankful task he accepted--courageous resolution,
which has resulted in giving us immense undertakings and great and
important works, among which posterity will distinguish and honor
forever the work which, entirely finished and collected into seven
volumes, is known under the name of _Animaux sans Vertebres_."

Before his appointment to this chair Lamarck had devoted considerable
attention to the study of conchology, and already possessed a rather
large collection of shells. His last botanical paper appeared in 1800,
but practically his botanical studies were over by 1793.

During the early years of the Revolution, namely, from 1789 to and
including 1791, Lamarck published nothing. Whether this was naturally
due to the social convulsions and turmoil which raged around the Jardin
des Plantes, or to other causes, is not known. In 1792, however, Lamarck
and his friends and colleagues, Bruguiere, Olivier, and the Abbe Hauey,
founded the _Journal d'Histoire Naturelle_, which contains nineteen
botanical articles, two on shells, besides one on physics, by Lamarck.