LAMARCK'S SHARE IN THE REORGANIZATION OF THE JARDIN DES PLANTES AND
MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
Even in his humble position as keeper of the herbarium, with its
pitiable compensation, Lamarck, now an eminent botanist, with a European
reputation, was by no means appreciated or secure in his position. He
was subjected to many worries, and, already married and with several
children, suffered from a grinding poverty. His friend and supporter,
La Billarderie, was a courtier, with much influence at the Tuileries,
but as Intendant of the Royal Garden without the least claim to
scientific fitness for the position; and in 1790 he was on the point of
discharging Lamarck.[22] On the 20th of August the Finance Committee
reduced the expenses of the Royal Garden and Cabinet, and, while raising
the salary of the professor of botany, to make good the deficiency thus
ensuing suppressed the position of keeper of the herbarium, filled by
Lamarck. Lamarck, on learning of this, acted promptly, and though in
this cavalier way stricken off from the rolls of the Royal Garden, he
at once prepared, printed, and distributed among the members of the
National Assembly an energetic claim for restoration to his office.[23]
His defence formed two brochures; in one he gave an account of his life,
travels, and works, and in the other he showed that the place which he
filled was a pressing necessity, and could not be conveniently or
usefully added to that of the professor of botany, who was already
overworked.
This manly and able plea in his own defence also comprised a broad,
comprehensive plan for the organization and development of a great
national museum, combining both vast collections and adequate means of
public instruction. The paper briefly stated, in courteous language,
what he wished to say to public men, in general animated with good
intentions, but little versed in the study of the sciences and the
knowledge of their application. It praised, in fit terms, the work of
the National Assembly, and gave, without too much emphasis, the
assurance of an entire devotion to the public business. Then in a very
clear and comprehensive way were given all the kinds of service which an
establishment like the Royal Garden should render to the sciences and
arts, and especially to agriculture, medicine, commerce, etc. Museums,
galleries, and botanical gardens; public lectures and demonstrations in
the museum and school of botany; an office for giving information, the
distribution of seeds, etc.--all the resources already so varied, as
well as the facilities for work at the Jardin, passed successively in
review before the representatives of the country, and the address ended
in a modest request to the Assembly that its author be allowed a few
days to offer some observations regarding the future organization of
this great institution.
The Assembly, adopting the wise views announced in the manifest which
had been presented by the officers of the Jardin and Cabinet, sent the
address to the Committee, and gave a month's time to the petitioners to
prepare and present a plan and regulations which should establish the
organization of their establishment.[24]
It was in 1790 that the decisive step was taken by the officers of the
Royal Garden[25] and Cabinet of Natural History which led to the
organization of the present Museum of Natural History as it is to-day.
Throughout the proceedings, Lamarck, as at the outset, took a prominent
part, his address having led the Assembly to invite the officers of the
double establishment to draw up rules for its government.
The officers met together August 23d, and their distrust and hostility
against the Intendant were shown by their nomination of Daubenton, the
Nestor of the French savants, to the presidency, although
La Billarderie, as representing the royal authority, was present at the
meeting. At the second meeting (August 24th) he took no part in the
proceedings, and absented himself from the third, held on August 27,
1790. It will be seen that even while the office of Intendant lasted,
that official took no active part in the meetings or in the work of the
institution, and from that day to this it has been solely under the
management of a director and scientific corps of professors, all of them
original investigators as well as teachers. Certainly the most practical
and efficient sort of organization for such an establishment.[26]
Lamarck, though holding a place subordinate to the other officers, was
present, as the records of the proceedings of the officers of the Jardin
des Plantes at this meeting show.
During the middle of 1791, the Intendant, La Billarderie, after "four
years of incapacity," placed his resignation in the hands of the king.
The Minister of the Interior, instead of nominating Daubenton as
Intendant, reserved the place for a _protégé_, and, July 1, 1791, sent
in the name of Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, the
distinguished author of _Paul et Virginie_ and of _Études sur la
Nature_. The new Intendant was literary in his tastes, fond of nature,
but not a practical naturalist. M. Hamy wittily states that "Bernardin
Saint-Pierre contemplated and dreamed, and in his solitary meditations
had imagined a system of the world which had nothing in common with that
which was to be seen in the Faubourg Saint Victor, and one can readily
imagine the welcome that the officers of the Jardin gave to the singular
naturalist the Tuileries had sent them."[27]
Lamarck suffered an indignity from the intermeddling of this second
Intendant of the Jardin. In his budget of expenses[28] sent to the
Minister of the Interior, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre took occasion to
refer to Lamarck in a disingenuous and blundering way, which may have
both amused and disgusted him.
But the last days of the Jardin du Roi were drawing to a close, and a
new era in French natural science, signalized by the reorganization of
the Jardin and Cabinet under the name of the _Muséum d'Histoire
Naturelle_, was dawning. On the 6th of February, 1793, the National
Convention, at the request of Lakanal,[29] ordered the Committees of
Public Instruction and of Finances to at once make a report on the new
organization of the administration of the Jardin des Plantes.
Lakanal consulted with Daubenton, and inquired into the condition and
needs of the establishment; Daubenton placed in his hands the brochure
of 1790, written by Lamarck. The next day Lakanal, after a short
conference with his colleagues of the Committee of Public Instruction,
read in the tribune a short report and a decree which the Committee
adopted without discussion.
Their minds were elsewhere, for grave news had come in from all
quarters. The Austrians were bombarding Valenciennes, the Prussians had
invested Mayence, the Spanish were menacing Perpignan, and bands of
Vendeans had seized Saumur after a bloody battle; while at Caen, at
Evreux, at Bordeaux, at Marseilles, and elsewhere, muttered the thunders
of the outbreaks provoked by the proscription of the Girondins. So that
under these alarming conditions the decree of the 10th of June, in
spite of its importance to science and higher learning in France, was
passed without discussion.
In his _Lamarck_ De Mortillet states explicitly that Lamarck, in his
address of 1790, changed the name of the Jardin du Roi to Jardin des
Plantes.[30] As the article states, "Entirely devoted to his studies,
Lamarck entered into no intrigue under the falling monarchy, so he
always remained in a position straitened and inferior to his merits." It
was owing to this and his retired mode of life that the single-minded
student of nature was not disturbed in his studies and meditations by
the Revolution. And when the name of the Jardin du Roi threatened to be
fatal to this establishment, it was he who presented a memoir to
transform it, under the name of Jardin des Plantes, into an institution
of higher instruction, with six professors. In 1793, Lakanal adopted
Lamarck's plan, and, enlarging upon it, created twelve chairs for the
teaching of the natural sciences.
Bourguin thus puts the matter:
"In June, 1793, Lakanal, having learned that 'the Vandals' (that is
his expression) had demanded of the tribune of the Convention the
suppression of the Royal Garden, as being an annex of the king's
palace, recurred to the memoirs of Lamarck presented in 1790 and
gave his plan of organization. He inspired himself with Lamarck's
ideas, but enlarged upon them. Instead of six positions of
professors-administrative, which Lamarck asked for, Lakanal
established twelve chairs for the teaching of different branches of
natural science."[31]
FOOTNOTES:
[22] Another intended victim of La Billarderie, whose own salary had
been at the same time reduced, was Faujas de Saint-Fond, one of the
founders of geology. But his useful discoveries in economic geology
having brought him distinction, the king had generously pensioned him,
and he was retained in office on the printed _État_ distributed by the
Committee of Finance. (Hamy, _l. c._, p. 29.)
[23] Hamy, _l. c._, p. 29. This brochure, of which I possess a copy, is
a small quarto pamphlet of fifteen pages, signed, on the last page,
"_J. B. Lamarck, ancien Officier au Régiment de Beaujolais, de
l'Académie des Sciences de Paris, Botaniste attaché au Cabinet
d'Histoire Naturelle du Jardin des Plantes_."
[24] Hamy, _l. c._, p. 31; also _Pièces Justificatives_, Nos. 11 _et_
12, pp. 97-101. The Intendant of the Garden was completely ignored, and
his unpopularity and inefficiency led to his resignation. But meanwhile,
in his letter to Condorcet, the perpetual Secretary of the Institute of
France, remonstrating against the proposed suppression by the Assembly
of the place of Intendant, he partially retracted his action against
Lamarck, saying that Lamarck's work, "_peut être utile, mais n'est pas
absolutement nécessaire_." The Intendant, as Hamy adds, knew well the
value of the services rendered by Lamarck at the Royal Garden, and that,
as a partial recompense, he had been appointed botanist to the museum.
He also equally well knew that the author of the _Flore Française_ was
in a most precarious situation and supported on his paltry salary a
family of seven persons, as he was already at this time married and had
five children. "But his own place was in peril, and he did not hesitate
to sacrifice the poor savant whom he had himself installed as keeper of
the herbarium." (Hamy, _l. c._, pp. 34, 35.)
[25] The first idea of the foundation of the Jardin dates from 1626, but
the actual carrying out of the conception was in 1635. The first act of
installation took place in 1640. Gui de la Brosse, in order to please
his high protectors, the first physicians of the king, named his
establishment _Jardin des Plantes Medicinales_. It was renovated by
Fagon, who was born in the Jardin, and whose mother was the niece of Gui
de la Brosse. By his disinterestedness, activity, and great scientific
capacity, he regenerated the garden, and under his administration
flourished the great professors, Duverney, Tournefort, Geoffroy the
chemist, and others (Perrier, _l. c._, p. 59). Fagon was
succeeded by Buffon, "the new legislator and second founder."
His Intendancy lasted from 1739 to 1788.
[26] Three days after, August 30th, the report was ready, the discussion
began, and the foundations of the new organization were definitely laid.
"No longer any Jardin or Cabinets, but a Museum of Natural History,
whose aim was clearly defined. No officers with unequal functions; all
are professors and all will give instruction. They elect themselves and
present to the king _a candidate for each vacant place_. _Finally, the
general administration of the Museum will be confided to the officers of
the establishment_, this implying the suppression of the Intendancy."
(Hamy, _l. c._, p. 37.)
[27] Hamy, _l. c._, p. 37. The Faubourg Saint Victor was a part of the
Quartier Latin, and included the Jardin des Plantes.
[28] _Devis de la Dépense du Jardin National des Plantes et du Cabinet
d'Histoire Naturelle pour l'Année 1793_, presented to the National
Convention by Citoyen Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. In it appeared a note
relative to Lamarck, which, after stating that, though full of zeal and
of knowledge of botany, his time was not entirely occupied; that for two
months he had written him in regard to the duties of his position;
referred to the statements of two of his seniors, who repeated the old
gossip as to the claim of La Billarderie that his place was useless, and
also found fault with him for not recognizing the artificial system of
Linné in the arrangement of the herbarium, added: "However, desirous of
retaining M. La Marck, father of six children, in the position which he
needs, and not wishing to let his talents be useless, after several
conversations with the older officers of the Jardin, I have believed
that, M. Desfontaines being charged with the botanical lectures in the
school, and M. Jussieu in the neighborhood of Paris, it would be well to
send M. La Marck to herborize in some parts of the kingdom, in order to
complete the French flora, as this will be to his taste, and at the same
time very useful to the progress of botany; thus everybody will be
employed and satisfied."--Perrier, _Lamarck et le Transformisme Actuel_,
pp. 13, 14. (Copied from the National Archives.) "The life of Bernardin
de St. Pierre (1737-1814) was nearly as irregular as that of his friend
and master [Rousseau]. But his character was essentially crafty and
selfish, like that of many other sentimentalists of the first order."
(Morley's _Rousseau_, p. 437, footnote.)
[29] Joseph Lakanal was born in 1762, and died in 1845. He was a
professor of philosophy in a college of the Oratory, and doctor of the
faculty at Angers, when in 1792 he was sent as a representative
(_député_) to the National Convention, and being versed in educational
questions he was placed on the Committee of Public Instruction and
elected its president. He was the means, as Hamy states, of saving from
a lamentable destruction, by rejuvenizing them, the scientific
institutions of ancient France. During the Revolution he voted for the
death of Louis XVI.
Lakanal also presented a plan of organization of a National Institute,
what is now the Institut de France, and was charged with designating the
first forty-eight members, who should elect all the others. He was by
the first forty-eight thus elected. Proscribed as a regicide at the
second restoration, he sailed for the United States, where he was warmly
welcomed by Jefferson. The United States Congress voted him five hundred
acres of land. The government of Louisiana offered him the presidency of
its university, which, however, he did not accept. In 1825 he went to
live on the shores of Mobile Bay on land which he purchased from the
proceeds of the sale of the land given him by Congress. Here he became a
pioneer and planter.
In 1830 he manifested a desire to return to his native country, and
offered his services to the new government, but received no answer and
was completely ignored. But two years later, thanks to the initiative of
Geoffroy St. Hilaire, who was the means of his reëlection to the French
Academy, he decided to return, and did so in 1837. He lived in
retirement in Paris, where he occupied himself until his death in 1845
in writing a book entitled _Séjour d'un Membre de l'Institut de France
aux États-Unis pendant vingt-deux ans_. The manuscript mysteriously
disappeared, no trace of it ever having been found. (Larousse, _Grand
Dictionnaire Universel_, Art. LAKANAL.) His bust now occupies a
prominent place among those of other great men in the French Academy of
Sciences.
[30] This is seen to be the case by the title of the pamphlet: _Mémoire
sur les Cabinets d'Histoire Naturelle, et particulièrement sur celui du
Jardin des Plantes_.
[31] Bourguin also adds that "on one point Lamarck, with more foresight,
went farther than Lakanal. He had insisted on the necessity of the
appointment of four demonstrators for zoölogy. In the decree of June 10,
1793, they were even reduced to two. Afterwards they saw that this
number was insufficient, and to-day (1863) the department of zoölogy is
administered at the museum by four professors, in conformity with the
division indicated by Lamarck."