Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution: His Life and Work — John Shaqi
Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution: His Life and WorkPackard, A. S. (Alpheus Spring)
History
Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution: His Life and Work
Packard, A. S. (Alpheus Spring)
Evolution (Biology); Lamarck, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet de, 1744-1829; Naturalists -- France -- Biography
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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