Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet Chevalier de 1744-1829
French naturalist and evolutionist

He was born in Bazentin. He became interested in Mediterranean flora, and while holding a post in a Paris bank began to study medicine and botany. In 1773 he published a Flore fran�aise ('French Flora'). In 1774 he became keeper of the royal garden (afterwards the nucleus of the Jardin des Plantes), and from 1794 he was keeper of invertebrates at the newly formed Natural History Museum. He lectured on zoology, originating the taxonomic distinction between vertebrates and invertebrates. About 1801 he had begun to think about the relations and origin of species, expressing his conclusions in his famous Philosophie zoologique (2 vols, 1809, Eng trans Zoological Philosophy, 1963) in which he postulated that acquired characters can be inherited by later generations. His Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vert�bres ('Natural History of Invertebrates') appeared in 1815-22. Lamarck broke with the old notion of immutable species, recognizing that species needed to adapt to survive environmental changes, and preparing the way for the now accepted theory of evolution.

Bibliography: Richard W Burkhardt, The Spirit of System: Lamarck and Evolutionary Biology (1977)