La Marck, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine De Monet

La Marck, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet CHEVALIER DE, a very distinguished French naturalist, deserves a place here on account of his connection with the celebrated theory of the "Variation of Species," lately so generally made known by the English naturalist Darwin. SEE MAN, ORIGIN OF. La Marck was born at Barenton, in Picardy, August 1, 1744, and was intended for the Church; he entered, however, the army, but accidental injury led him to adopt the mercantile profession. During his leisure hours he studied the natural sciences, and in 1778 finally came before the public with a work on botany, which secured him the position of botanist to the king. In 1793 he was made a professor of natural history in the "Jardin des Plantes." He died December 20, 1829. His greatest work is his Histoire des Animaux sans Vertebres (Paris, 1815-22, 7 volumes, 8vo; 2d ed. Paris, 1835, etc.). In Philosophie Zoologique (Paris, 1809, 2 volumes, 8vo), and some other of his productions, he advanced extremely speculative views, which, since Darwin's rise, have become the consideration of scientific scholars. So much is certain, that La Marck was the first (if we except a few obscure words of Buffon towards the close of his life) to advocate "Variation of Species." For a more detailed account and a complete list of his works, see Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 29:55-62). (J.H.W.)