CHAPTER XII.
LAMARCK THE ZOOeLOGIST Although there has been and still may be a difference of opinion as to the value and permanency of Lamarck's theoretical views, there has never been any lack of appreciation of his labors as a systematic zooelogist.
He was undoubtedly the greatest zooelogist of his time.

Lamarck is the one dominant personage who in the domain of zooelogy filled the interval between Linne and Cuvier, and in acuteness and sound judgment he at times surpassed Cuvier.

His was the master mind of the period of systematic zooelogy, which began with Linne--the period which, in the history of zooelogy, preceded that of comparative anatomy and morphology.
After Aristotle, no epoch-making zooelogist arose until Linne was born.
In England Linne was preceded by Ray, but binomial nomenclature and the first genuine attempt at the classification of animals dates back to the _Systema Naturae_ of Linne, the tenth edition of which appeared in 1758.
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF LAMARCK] The contemporaries of Lamarck in biological science, in the eighteenth century, were Camper (1722-89), Spallanzani (1729-99), Wolff (1733-94), Hunter (1728-93), Bichat (1771-1802), and Vicq d'Azyr (1748-94).

These were all anatomists and physiologists, the last-named being the first to propose and use the term "comparative anatomy," while Bichat was the founder of histology and pathological anatomy.

There was in fact no prominent systematic zooelogist in the interval between Linne and Lamarck.