How his work is still regarded by malacologists is shown by the following letter from our leading student of molluscs, Dr.W.H.Dall: "SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, "UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, WASHINGTON, D.C., "_November 4, 1899._ "Lamarck was one of the best naturalists of his time, when geniuses abounded.

His work was the first well-marked step toward a natural system as opposed to the formalities of Linne.

He owed something to Cuvier, yet he knew how to utilize the work in anatomy offered by Cuvier in making a natural classification.

His failing eyesight, which obliged him latterly to trust to the eyes of others; his poverty and trials of various kinds, more than excuse the occasional slips which we find in some of the later volumes of the _Animaux sans Vertebres_.

These are rather of the character of typographical errors than faults of scheme or principle.
"The work of Lamarck is really the foundation of rational natural malacological classification; practically all that came before his time was artificial in comparison.