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JEAN LAMARCK

Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine Monnet Chevalier De Lamarck was a French naturalist. He was born in 1744 at Bazentin-le-Petit, Picardy and died in 1829. Intended for the church, after his father died when he was sixteen he joined the army and served in the Seven Years' War, during which he was promoted to lieutenant for bravery. Following an accident he retired from the military and took up an interest in medicine and botany, studying at Paris. In 1778 he published his first great work, 'Flore Francaise' and was elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1779. In 1781 he travelled the continent studying botany and in 1788 was appointed keeper of the herbarium of the Royal Gardens. In 1793 he was appointed to the chair of invertebrate zoology at the Museum of Natural History.
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