He probably was lacking in executive force, or in the art which Cuvier knew so well to practise, of enlisting young men to do the drudgery or render material aid, and then, in some cases, neglecting to give them proper credit.
The first memoir or paper published on a zooelogical subject by Lamarck was a modest one on shells, which appeared in 1792 in the _Journal d'Histoire naturelle_, the editors of which were Lamarck, Bruguiere, Olivier, Hauey, and Pelletier.

This paper was a review of an excellent memoir by Bruguiere, who preceded Lamarck in the work of dismemberment of the Linnaean genera.

His next paper was on four new species of Helix.
To this _Journal_, of which only two volumes were published, Cuvier contributed his first paper--namely, on some new species of "Cloportes" (Oniscus, a genus of terrestrial crustacea or "pill-bugs"); this was followed by his second memoir on the anatomy of the limpet, his next article being descriptions of two species of flies from his collection of insects.[120] Seven years later Lamarck gave some account of the genera of cuttlefishes.

His first general memoir was a prodromus of a new classification of shells (1799).
Meanwhile Lamarck's knowledge of shells and corals was utilized by Cuvier in his _Tableau elementaire_, published in 1798, who acknowledges in the preface that in the exposition of the genera of shells he has been powerfully seconded, while he indicated to him (Cuvier) a part of the subgenera of corals and alcyonarians, and adds, "I have received great aid from the examination of his collection." Also he acknowledges that he had been greatly aided (_puissamment seconde_) by Lamarck, who had even indicated the most of the subdivisions established in his _Tableau elementaire_ for the insects (Blainville, _l.

c._, p.