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 cécité dont M. de Lamarck est
frappé, M. Bosc[42] continuera d'exercer sur les parties confiert à
M. Audouin la surveillance attribuée au Professeur."
But, according to Duval, long before this he had been unable to use his
eyes. In his _Système analytique des Connaissances positives de
l'Homme_, published in 1820, he refers to the sudden loss of his
eyesight.
Even in advanced life Lamarck seems not to have suffered from
ill-health, despite the fact that he apparently during the last thirty
years of his life lived in a very secluded way. Whether he went out into
the world, to the theatre, or even went away from Paris and the Museum
into the country in his later years, is a matter of doubt. It is said
that he was fond of novels, his daughters reading to him those of the
best French authors. After looking with some care through the records of
the sessions of the Assembly of Professors, we are struck with the
evidences of his devotion to routine museum work and to his courses of
lectures.
At that time the Museum sent out to the _Écoles centrales_ of the
different departments of France named collections made up from the
duplicates, and in this sort of drudgery Lamarck took an active part. He
also took a prominent share in the business of the Museum, in the
exchange and in the purchase of specimens and collections in his
department, and even in the management of the menagerie. Thus he
reported on the dentition of the young lions (one dying from teething),
on the illness and recovery of one of the elephants, on the generations
of goats and kids in the park; also on a small-sized bull born of a
small cow covered by a Scottish bull, the young animal having, as he
states, all the characters of the original.
For one year (1794) he was secretary of the Board of Professors of the
Museum.[43] The records of the meetings from 4 vendémiaire, l'an III.,
until 4 vendémiaire, l'an IV., are each written in his bold, legible
handwriting or signed by him. He signed his name _Lamarck_, this period
being that of the first republic. Afterwards, in the records, his name
is written _De Lamarck_. He was succeeded by É. Geoffroy St. Hilaire,
who signed himself plain _Geoffroy_.
In 1802 he acted as treasurer of the Assembly, and again for a period of
six years, until and including 1811, when he resigned, the reason given
being: "Il s'occupe depuis six ans et que ses travaux et son age lui
rendent penibles."
Lamarck was extremely regular in his attendance at these meetings. From
1793 until 1818 he rarely, if ever, missed a meeting. We have only
observed in the records of this long period the absence of his name on
two or three occasions from the list of those present. During 1818 and
the following year it was his blindness which probably prevented his
regular attendance. July 15, 1818, he was present, and presented the
fifth volume of his _Animaux sans Vertèbres_; and August 31, 1819, he
was present[44] and laid before the Assembly the sixth volume of the
same great work.
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF LAMARCK, WHEN OLD AND BLIND, IN THE COSTUME
OF A MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE, ENGRAVED IN 1824.]
From the observations of the records we infer that Lamarck never had
any long, lingering illness or suffered from overwork, though his life
had little sunshine or playtime in it. He must have had a strong
constitution, his only infirmity being the terrible one (especially to
an observer of nature) of total blindness.
Lamarck's greatest work in systematic zoölogy would never have been
completed had it not been for the self-sacrificing spirit and devotion
of his eldest daughter.
A part of the sixth and the whole of the last volume of the _Animaux
sans Vertèbres_ were presented to the Assembly of Professors
September 10, 1822. This volume was dictated to and written out by one
of his daughters, Mlle. Cornelie De Lamarck. On her the aged savant
leaned during the last ten years of his life--those years of failing
strength and of blindness finally becoming total. The frail woman
accompanied him in his hours of exercise, and when he was confined to
his house she never left him. It is stated by Cuvier, in his eulogy,
that at her first walk out of doors after the end came she was nearly
overcome by the fresh air, to which she had become so unaccustomed. She,
indeed, practically sacrificed her life to her father. It is one of the
rarest and most striking instances of filial devotion known in the
annals of science or literature, and is a noticeable contrast to the
daughters of the blind Milton, whose domestic life was rendered unhappy
by their undutifulness, as they were impatient of the restraint and
labors his blindness had imposed upon them.
Besides this, the seventh volume is a voluminous scientific work, filled
with very dry special details, making the labor of writing out from
dictation, of corrections and preparation for the press, most wearisome
and exhausting, to say nothing of the corrections of the proof-sheets, a
task which probably fell to her--work enough to break down the health of
a strong man.
It was a natural and becoming thing for the Assembly of Professors of
the Museum, in view of the "malheureuse position de la famille," to vote
to give her employment in the botanical laboratory in arranging and
pasting the dried plants, with a salary of 1,000 francs.
Of the last illness of Lamarck, and the nature of the sickness to which
he finally succumbed, there is no account. It is probable that,
enfeebled by the weakness of extreme old age, he gradually sank away
without suffering from any acute disease.
The exact date of his death has been ascertained by Dr. Mondière,[45]
with the aid of M. Saint-Joanny, archiviste du Dèpartment de la Seine,
who made special search for the record. The "acte" states that
December 28, 1829, Lamarck, then a widower, died in the Jardin du Roi,
at the age of eighty-five years.
The obsequies, as stated in the _Moniteur Universel_ of Paris for
December 23, 1829, were celebrated on the Sunday previous in the Church
of Saint-Médard, his parish. From the church the remains were borne to
the cemetery of Montparnasse. At the interment, which took place
December 30, M. Latreille, in the name of the Academy of Sciences, and
M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, in the name and on behalf of his colleagues,
the Professors of the Museum of Natural History, pronounced eulogies at
the grave. The eulogy prepared by Cuvier, and published after his death,
was read at a session of the Academy of Sciences, by Baron Silvestre,
November 26, 1832.
With the exception of these formalities, the great French naturalist,
"the Linné of France," was buried as one forgotten and unknown. We read
with astonishment, in the account by Dr. A. Mondière, who made zealous
inquiries for the exact site of the grave of Lamarck, that it is and
forever will be unknown. It is a sad and discreditable, and to us
inexplicable, fact that his remains did not receive decent burial. They
were not even deposited in a separate grave, but were thrown into a
trench apparently situated apart from the other graves, and from which
the bones of those thrown there were removed every five years. They are
probably now in the catacombs of Paris, mingled with those of the
thousands of unknown or paupers in that great ossuary.[46]
Dr. Mondière's account is as follows. Having found in the _Moniteur_ the
notice of the burial services, as above stated, he goes on to say:
"Armed with this document, I went again to the cemetery of
Montparnasse, where I fortunately found a conservator, M. Lacave,
who is entirely _au courant_ with the question of transformism. He
therefore interested himself in my inquiries, and, thanks to him, I
have been able to determine exactly where Lamarck had been buried. I
say had been, because, alas! he had been simply placed in a _trench
off on one side_ (_fosse à part_), that is to say, one which should
change its occupant at the end of five years. Was it negligence, was
it the jealousy of his colleagues, was it the result of the troubles
of 1830? In brief, there had been no permission granted to purchase
a burial lot. The bones of Lamarck are probably at this moment mixed
with those of all the other unknown which lie there. What had at
first led us into an error is that we made the inquiries under the
name of Lamarck instead of that of de Monnet. In reality, the
register of inscription bears the following mention:
"'De Monnet de Lamarck buried this 20 December 1829 (85 years), 3d
square, 1st division, 2d line, trench 22.'
"At some period later, a friendly hand, without doubt, had written
on the margin of the register the following information:
"'To the left of M. Dassas.'
"M. Lacave kindly went with us to search for the place where Lamarck
had been interred, and on the register we saw this:
"'Dassas, 1st division, 4th line south, No. 6 to the west,
concession 1165-1829.' On arriving at the spot designated, we found
some new graves, but nothing to indicate that of M. Dassas, our only
mark by which we could trace the site after the changes wrought
since 1829. After several ineffectual attempts, I finally perceived
a flat grave, surrounded by an iron railing, and covered with weeds.
Its surface seemed to me very regular, and I probed this lot. There
was a gravestone there. The grave-digger who accompanied us cleared
away the surface, and I confess that it was with the greatest
pleasure and with deep emotion that we read the name Dassas.
[Illustration: POSITION OF THE BURIAL PLACE OF LAMARCK IN THE CEMETERY
OF MONTPARNASSE.]
"We found the place, but unfortunately, as I have previously said,
the remains of Lamarck are no longer there."
Mondière added to his letter a little plan (p. 59), which he drew on the
spot.[47]
But the life-work of Lamarck and his theory of organic evolution, as
well as the lessons of his simple and noble character, are more durable
and lasting than any monument of stone or brass. His name will never be
forgotten either by his own countrymen or by the world of science and
philosophy. After the lapse of nearly a hundred years, and in this first
year of the twentieth century, his views have taken root and flourished
with a surprising strength and vigor, and his name is preëminent among
the naturalists of his time.
No monument exists in Montparnasse, but within the last decade, though
the reparation has come tardily, the bust of Lamarck may be seen by
visitors to the Jardin des Plantes, on the outer wall of the Nouvelle
Galerie, containing the Museums of Comparative Anatomy, Palæontology,
and Anthropology.
Although the city of Paris has not yet erected a monument to its
greatest naturalist, some public recognition of his eminent services to
the city and nation was manifested when the Municipal Council of Paris,
on February 10, 1875, gave the name Lamarck to a street.[48] This is a
long and not unimportant street on the hill of Montmartre in the XVIII^e
_arrondissement_, and in the zone of the old stone or gypsum quarries
which existed before Paris extended so far out in that direction, and
from which were taken the fossil remains of the early tertiary mammals
described by Cuvier.
The city of Toulouse has also honored itself by naming one of its
streets after Lamarck; this was due to the proposal of Professor Émile
Cartailhac to the Municipal Council, which voted to this effect May 12,
1886.
In the meetings of the Assembly of Professors no one took the trouble to
prepare and enter minutes, however brief and formal, relative to his
decease. The death of Lamarck is not even referred to in the
_Procès-verbaux_. This is the more marked because there is an entry in
the same records for 1829, and about the same date, of an extraordinary
_séance_ held November 19, 1829, when "the Assembly" was convoked to
take measures regarding the death of Professor Vauquelin relative to the
choice of a candidate, Chevreul being elected to fill his chair.
Lamarck's chair was at his death divided, and the two professorships
thus formed were given to Latreille and De Blainville.
At the session of the Assembly of Professors held December 8, 1829,
Geoffroy St. Hilaire sent in a letter to the Assembly urging that the
department of invertebrate animals be divided into two, and referred to
the bad state of preservation of the insects, the force of assistants to
care for these being insufficient. He also, in his usual tactful way,
referred to the "_complaisance extrème de la parte de M. De Lamarck_" in
1793, in assenting to the reunion in a single professorship of the mass
of animals then called "_insectes et vermes_."
The two successors of the chair held by Lamarck were certainly not
dilatory in asking for appointments. At a session of the Professors held
December 22, 1829, the first meeting after his death, we find the
following entry: "M. Latreille écrit pour exprimer son désir d'être
présenté comme candidat à la chaire vacante par le décès de M. Lamarck
et pour rappeler ses titres à cette place."
M. de Blainville also wrote in the same manner: "Dans le cas que la
chaire serait divisée, il demande la place de Professeur de l'histoire
des animaux inarticulés. Dans le cas contraire il se présente également
comme candidat, voulant, tout en respectant les droits acquis, ne pas
laisser dans l'oubli ceux qui lui appartiennent."
January 12, 1830, Latreille[49] was unanimously elected by the Assembly
a candidate to the chair of entomology, and at a following session
(February 16th) De Blainville was unanimously elected a candidate for
the chair of _Molluscs, Vers et Zoophytes_, and on the 16th of March the
royal ordinance confirming those elections was received by the Assembly.
There could have been no fitter appointments made for those two
positions. Lamarck had long known Latreille "and loved him as a son." De
Blainville honored and respected Lamarck, and fully appreciated his
commanding abilities as an observer and thinker.
FOOTNOTES:
[40] I have been unable to ascertain the names of any of his wives, or
of his children, except his daughter, Cornelie.
[41] "L'examen minutieux de petits animaux, analysés à l'aide
d'instruments grossissants, fatigua, puis affaiblait, sa vue. Bientôt il
fut complement aveugle. Il passa les dix derniers années de sa vie
plongé dans les ténèbres, entouré des soins de ses deux tilles, à l'une
desquelles il dictait le dernier volume de son _Histoire des Animaux
sans Vertèbres_."--_Le Transformiste Lamarck_, _Bull. Soc.
Anthropologie_, xii., 1889, p. 341. Cuvier, also, in his history of the
progress of natural science for 1819, remarks: "M. de La Marck, malgré
l'affoiblissement total de sa vue, poursuit avec un courage inaltérable
la continuation de son grand ouvrage sur les animaux sans vertèbres"
(p. 406).
[42] Louis Auguste Guillaume Bosc, born in Paris, 1759; died in 1828.
Author of now unimportant works, entitled: _Histoire Naturelle des
Coquilles_ (1801); _Hist. Nat. des Vers_ (1802); _Hist. Nat. des
Crustacés_ (1828), and papers on insects and plants. He was associated
with Lamarck in the publication of the _Journal d'Histoire Naturelle_.
During the Reign of Terror in 1793 he was a friend of Madame Roland, was
arrested, but afterwards set free and placed first on the Directory in
1795. In 1798 he sailed for Charleston, S. C. Nominated successively
vice-consul at Wilmington and consul at New York, but not obtaining his
exequatur from President Adams, he went to live with the botanist
Michaux in Carolina in his botanical garden, where he devoted himself to
natural history until the quarrel in 1800 between the United States and
France caused him to return to France. On his return he sent North
American insects to his friends Fabricius and Olivier, fishes to
Lacépède, birds to Daudin, reptiles to Latreille. Not giving all his
time to public life, he devoted himself to natural history,
horticulture, and agriculture, succeeding Thouin in the chair of
horticulture, where he was most usefully employed until his
death.--(Cuvier's _Éloge_.)
[43] The first director of the Board or Assembly of
Professors-administrative of the Museum was Daubenton, Lacépède being
the secretary, Thouin the treasurer. Daubenton was succeeded by Jussieu;
and Lacépède, first by Desfontaines and afterwards by Lamarck, who was
elected secretary 18 fructidor, an II. (1794).
[44] His attendance this year was infrequent. July 10, 1820, he was
present and made a report relative to madrepores and molluscs. In the
summer of 1821 he attended several of the meetings. August 7, 1821, he
was present, and referred to the collection of shells of Struthiolaria.
He was present May 23d and June 9th, when it was voted that he should
enjoy the garden of the house he occupied and that a chamber should be
added to his lodgings. He was frequent in attendance this year,
especially during the summer months. He attended a few meetings at
intervals in 1822, 1823, and only twice in 1824.
At a meeting held April 19, 1825, he was present, and, stating that his
condition did not permit him to lecture, asked to have Audouin take his
place, as Latreille's health did not allow him to take up the work. The
next week (26th) he was likewise present. On May 10 he was present, as
also on June 28, October 11, and also through December, 1825. His last
appearance at these business meetings was on July 11, 1828.
[45] See, for the _Acte de décès_, _L'Homme_, iv. p. 289, and _Lamarck.
Par un Groupe de Transformistes_, etc., p. 24.
[46] Dr. Mondière in _L'Homme_, iv. p. 291, and _Lamarck. Par un Groupe
de Transformistes_, p. 271. A somewhat parallel case is that of Mozart,
who was buried at Vienna in the common ground of St. Marx, the exact
position of his grave being unknown. There were no ceremonies at his
grave, and even his friends followed him no farther than the city gates,
owing to a violent storm.--(_The Century Cyclopedia of Names._)
[47] Still hoping that the site of the grave might have been kept open,
and desiring to satisfy myself as to whether there was possibly space
enough left on which to erect a modest monument to the memory of
Lamarck, I took with me the _brochure_ containing the letter and plan of
Dr. Mondière to the cemetery of Montparnasse. With the aid of one of the
officials I found what he told me was the site, but the entire place was
densely covered with the tombs and grave-stones of later interments,
rendering the erection of a stone, however small and simple, quite out
of the question.
[48] The Rue Lamarck begins at the elevated square on which is situated
the Church of the Sacré-Coeur, now in process of erection, and from this
point one obtains a commanding and very fine view overlooking the city;
from there the street curves round to the westward, ending in the Avenue
de Saint-Ouen, and continues as a wide and long thoroughfare, ending to
the north of the cemetery of Montmartre. A neighboring street, Rue
Becquerel, is named after another French savant, and parallel to it is a
short street named Rue Darwin.
[49] Latreille was born at Brives, November 29, 1762, and died
February 6, 1833. He was the leading entomologist of his time, and to
him Cuvier was indebted for the arrangement of the insects in the _Règne
Animal_. His bust is to be seen on the same side of the Nouvelle Galerie
in the Jardin des Plantes as those of Lamarck, Cuvier, De Blainville,
and D'Orbigny. His first paper was introduced by Lamarck in 1792. In the
minutes of the session of 4 thermidor, l'an VI. (July, 1798), we find
this entry: "The citizen Lamarck announces that the citizen Latreille
offered to the administration to work under the direction of that
professor in arranging the very numerous collection of insects of the
Museum, so as to place them under the eye of the public." And here he
remained until his appointment. Several years (1825) before Lamarck's
death he had asked to have Latreille fill his place in giving
instruction.
Audouin (1797-1841), also an eminent entomologist and morphologist, was
appointed _aide-naturaliste-adjoint_ in charge of Mollusca, Crustacea,
Worms, and Zoöphytes. He was afterwards associated with H. Milne Edwards
in works on annelid worms. December 26, 1827, Latreille asked to be
allowed to employ Boisduval as a _préparateur_; he became the author of
several works on injurious insects and Lepidoptera.