The insects, shells, and an infinity of organisms--a portion of creation still almost unknown--remained to be treated in such a course.

A desire to comply with the wishes of his colleagues, members of the administration, and without doubt, also, the consciousness of his powers as an investigator, determined M.de Lamarck: this task, so great, and which would tend to lead him into numberless researches; this friendless, unthankful task he accepted--courageous resolution, which has resulted in giving us immense undertakings and great and important works, among which posterity will distinguish and honor forever the work which, entirely finished and collected into seven volumes, is known under the name of _Animaux sans Vertebres_." Before his appointment to this chair Lamarck had devoted considerable attention to the study of conchology, and already possessed a rather large collection of shells.

His last botanical paper appeared in 1800, but practically his botanical studies were over by 1793.
During the early years of the Revolution, namely, from 1789 to and including 1791, Lamarck published nothing.

Whether this was naturally due to the social convulsions and turmoil which raged around the Jardin des Plantes, or to other causes, is not known.

In 1792, however, Lamarck and his friends and colleagues, Bruguiere, Olivier, and the Abbe Hauey, founded the _Journal d'Histoire Naturelle_, which contains nineteen botanical articles, two on shells, besides one on physics, by Lamarck.
These, with many articles by other men of science, illustrated by plates, indicate that during the years of social unrest and upheaval in Paris, and though France was also engaged in foreign wars, the philosophers preserved in some degree, at least, the traditional calm of their profession, and passed their days and nights in absorption in matters biological and physical.