ollusca, and yet it was in
the special classification of the molluscs that Lamarck did his best
work (Blainville, _l. c._, p. 116).

[51] De Blainville states that "the Academy did not even allow it to be
printed in the form in which it was pronounced" (p. 324); and again he
speaks of the lack of judgment in Cuvier's estimate of Lamarck, "the
naturalist who had the greatest force in the general conception of
beings and of phenomena, although he might often be far from the path"
(p. 323).

[52] _Fragments Biographiques_, pp. 209-219.

[53] _L. c._ p. 81.

[54] _Histoire Naturelle Drolatique et Philosophique des Professeurs du
Jardin des Plantes, _etc._ Par Isid. S. de Gosse. Avec des Annotations
de M. Frederic Gerard._ Paris, 1847.

[55] _Die Naturanschauung von Darwin, Goethe und Lamarck_, Jena, 1882.

[56] _Geschichte der Zoologie bis auf Joh. Mueller und Charles Darwin_,
1872.

[57] We have been unable to find these statements in any of Lamarck's
writings.

CHAPTER VII

LAMARCK'S WORK IN METEOROLOGY AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE

When a medical student in Paris, Lamarck, from day to day watching the
clouds from his attic windows, became much interested in meteorology,
and, indeed, at first this subject had nearly as much attraction for him
as botany. For a long period he pursued these studies, and he was the
first one to foretell the probabilities of the weather, thus
anticipating by over half a century the modern idea of making the
science of meteorology of practical use to mankind.

His article, "De l'influence de la lune sur l'atmosphere terrestre,"
appeared in the _Journal de Physique_ for 1798, and was translated in
two English journals. The titles of several other essays will be found
in the Bibliography at the close of this volume.

From 1799 to 1810 he regularly published an annual meteorological report
containing the statement of probabilities acquired by a long series of
observations on the state of the weather and the variations of the
atmosphere at different times of the year, giving indications of the
periods when to expect pleasant weather, or rain, storms, tempests,
frosts, thaws, etc.; finally the citations of these probabilities of
times favorable to fetes, journeys, voyages, harvesting crops, and
other enterprises dependent on good weather.

Lamarck thus explained the principles on which he based his
probabilities: Two kinds of causes, he says, displace the fluids which
compose the a