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LAMARCK, JEAN BAPTISTE PIERRE ANTOINE
DE MONET DE (b. Bazentin-le-Petit, Picardy,
France, 1 August 1744; d. Paris, France, 28 December
1829), botany, invertebrate zoology and paleontology,
evolution.
Hydrogéologie, in which he states that a terrestrial
physics would include three subjects: meteorology,
hydrogeology, and biology. He originally intended to
write a work dealing with these areas but decided to
postpone the sections on meteorology and biology
until he had done further research.
Lamarck continued his study of meteorology in the
1780's, while he was involved in botanical studies; his
awareness of the importance of climate for plants has
already been mentioned. In 1797 he began publishing
articles on meteorology and attempting to provide
theoretical explanations for factors causing weather
change. Three years later he started publishing the
Annuaire météorologique. It has often been said that
Lamarck wrote these volumes with the sole intention
of earning money, but he showed too great an interest
in them and in defending his theories for that to have
been the case. It was surely no coincidence that he
was assembling his meteorological studies at the same
time he was elaborating his theory of evolution (the
last Annuaire was published in 1810). Since climate
was an important factor in his theory, it would be
important to seek the laws regulating changes in
climate and therefore perhaps be able to predict or
understand changes in organisms more fully.
Lamarck's meteorology was devoted to a search for
those laws of nature which regulate climatic change.
The search was more important than the speculative
theories he devised, for it indicates certain connections
with the Enlightenment; he assumed that there must
be simple discoverable laws governing weather changes.
He also had grounds to think that such laws must
exist because of Franklin's success in identifying
lightning and terrestrial electricity; he greatly admired
Franklin. In addition, a number of his contemporaries
were studying meteorological phenomena, improving
instruments, and theorizing. Lamarck was familiar
with their work and used it as a point of departure
for his own.
As in botany, Lamarck was attracted to the history
and progressive development of meteorology. One
might also say that he was concerned with a natural
classification of meteorological phenomena. Finally,
his theoretical considerations indicate an important
thought pattern; he tried to explain all meteorological
change as the result of one general cause (the moon)
with irregularities produced by local circumstances.
Lamarck did have one public success with his
meteorology. He recommended that the French
government establish a central meteorological data
bank. Following this suggestion, Chaptal established
such a program in the ministry of the interior in 1800.
One of Lamarck's concerns was that the daily observations
from all parts of France be made in accordance
with standardized procedures and instruments. The
project and Lamarck's work in meteorology ended in
1810, when Napoleon ridiculed Lamarck's Annuaire.
Invertebrate Zoology and Paleontology.
When the
Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle was established in
1793 and Lamarck made professor of “insects and
worms,” he had the tasks of organizing the museum
collection and giving courses, beginning in the spring
of 1794. His only previous connection with the invertebrates
was his interest in shell collecting. He was,
however, a good friend of his colleague, Jean-Guillaume
Bruguière, who was considered an expert
on invertebrates, especially the mollusks. When
Bruguière died in 1798, Lamarck finished his Histoire
des vers for the Encyclopédie méthodique. Lamarck's
published works in the field include a number of
articles, in which he identified new genera and species
and put forth some theoretical considerations, and
books, the most important of which were Système des
animaux sans vertèbres (1801) and his seven-volume
major work, Histoire naturelle des animaux sans
vertèbres (1815-1822).
Lamarck developed a system for the natural
classification of invertebrates based on the anatomical
findings of Cuvier. As in botany, the natural order
consisted of classes arranged in a linear fashion from
most complex to least complex. Such a series provided
clear examples of degradation in anatomical structure
and physiological function, as one system after
another disappeared. Lamarck spoke of this degradation
well before he advocated his theory of evolution,
and that theory was first put forth as one of degradation.
His study of invertebrates also helped him refine
his definition of life, for the simplest organisms
indicated the minimum conditions necessary for life.
The origin (generation) of these simplest animals
raised problems whose answer seemed to be
spontaneous generation.
Burkhardt has pointed out (1972) that Lamarck
came to be regarded as an expert in conchology and
the successor to Bruguière. Lamarck made an important
contribution to the classification of shells in
his “Prodrome d'une nouvelle classification des
coquilles” (1799), in which he established 126 genera.
Any attempt to classify shells immediately raised the
problem of what to do with fossil forms. According
to Burkhardt, the pressing question of the late 1790's
was whether there were any similarities between living
and fossil forms. If the answer were no, the way was
open to a belief in extinction, especially extinction
brought about by some catastrophe. The issue being
debated involved vertebrates as well. Cuvier and
others were making impressive discoveries of large
mammalian fossils which seemed to have no living