LAST DAYS AND DEATH Lamarck's life was saddened and embittered by the loss of four wives, and the pangs of losing three of his children;[40] also by the rigid economy he had to practise and the unending poverty of his whole existence.

A very heavy blow to him and to science was the loss, at an advanced age, of his eyesight.
It was, apparently, not a sudden attack of blindness, for we have hints that at times he had to call in Latreille and others to aid him in the study of the insects.

The continuous use of the magnifying lens and the microscope, probably, was the cause of enfeebled eyesight, resulting in complete loss of vision.

Duval[41] states that he passed the last ten years of his life in darkness; that his loss of sight gradually came on until he became completely blind.
In the reports of the meetings of the Board of Professors there is but one reference to his blindness.

Previous to this we find that, at his last appearance at these sessions--_i.e._, April 19, 1825--since his condition did not permit him to give his course of lectures, he had asked M.Latreille to fill his place; but such was the latter's health, he proposed that M.Audouin, sub-librarian of the French Institute, should lecture in his stead, on the invertebrate animals.