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.

Lamarck was the youngest of eleven children born to Marie-Françoise de Fontaines de Chuignolles and Philippe Jacques de Monet de La Marck. His parents were among the semi-impoverished lesser nobility of northern France; his father, following family tradition, served as a military officer. It was primarily economic and social considerations which led his parents to select the priesthood as his future career. Lamarck, at about age eleven, was sent to the Jesuit school at Amiens; he was not, however, interested in a religious career and much preferred the military life of his father and older brothers. When his father died in 1759, Lamarck left school in search of military glory. Within a few years he was fighting with a French army in the Seven Years' War. After the war was over, he spent five years (1763-1768) at various French forts on the Mediterranean and eastern borders of France. It was during this period that he began botanizing; his military transfers served to acquaint him with highly diverse types of French flora.

In 1768 Lamarck left military service because of illness and after several years found a job in a Paris bank. He subsequently studied medicine for four years and became increasingly interested in meteorology, chemistry, and shell collecting.

Lamarck's personal life was marked by tragedy and poverty. He had three or four wives and eight children. In 1777 he began a liaison with Marie Rosalie Delaporte, marrying her, fifteen years and six children later, as she was dying. In 1793 he married Charlotte Victoire Reverdy, by whom he had two children; she died in 1797. The following year he married again; Julie Mallet died childless in 1819. There is some indication that he married for a fourth time, but no documents to support this can be found. Lamarck's health began to fail in 1809, when he developed eye problems; in 1818 he became completely blind but was able to continue his work by dictating to one of his daughters. When he died in 1829, the family did not have enough money for his funeral and had to appeal to the Académie des Sciences for funds. His belongings, including his books and scientific collections, were sold at public auction; he left five children with no financial provisions. Of these, one son was deaf and another insane; his two daughters were single and without support. Only one child, Auguste, was financially successful as an engineer; he was the only one of the offspring to marry and have children.

Botany.

Lamarck's recognition by the French