Jean Baptiste Lamarck, whose brief biography will be considered by us, is the first scientist to create a holistic theory of the evolution of organisms. However, he owns a number of other discoveries, less known. Do you know what important concept Jean Baptiste Lamarck introduced into science? Biology is the term that was proposed by this scientist in 1802. In addition, he was the first to divide the animal kingdom into invertebrates and vertebrates. We offer you to get acquainted with the life and achievements of such a famous scientist as Jean Baptiste Lamarck. A brief biography of him will give you a general idea of this scientist.
Origin, childhood
J. B. Lamarck (years of life - 1744-1829) was born in the family castle located in Picardy (France). His parents were middle-class noblemen. They wanted to see their son as a priest, so they assigned Lamarck to a Jesuit school. After his father’s death, his fate changed. At the age of 16, he left school and enlisted as a volunteer in the army Jean Baptiste Lamarck. A brief biography of several of his subsequent years of life is associated with a military career.
Military service and medicine
During the Seven Years War, he showed great courage in the battle with the Prussians. The marshal himself made the former pet of a Jesuit college officers. However, a military career, brilliantly begun, as well as a spiritual one, Lamarck was not attracted. The future scientist decided to resign. After some time, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck began to study medicine in the French capital. His brief biography continues in Paris, where Lamarck was especially attracted to the natural sciences, mainly botany.
"Flora of France"
A talented and hardworking young scientist, after several years of study, created a lot of work in 3 volumes. It was called the work "Flora of France." In this work, many plants are described, and there is also guidance on how to identify them. This work brought fame to the budding scientist, who at that time was Jean Baptiste Lamarck. The biography of Jean Baptiste is marked by membership in the Paris Academy of Sciences. It was granted to him for his achievements. At the academy, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck continued to study botany with success. His biography, however, is not limited to its study.
Jean Baptiste becomes a zoologist
When Jean Baptiste was about 50 years old, in 1793, his scientific activity radically changed. Lamarck worked at the Royal Botanic Garden, which was transformed at this time into the Museum of Natural History. The museum did not have free departments of botany, so the scientist was invited to do zoology. After 10 years, Lamarck became the same expert in this field as he was in the study of flora.
New works of Batista
At the end of the 18th century, the development of science came to a stage when botany, physiology and chemistry reached a great development. In their entirety, these disciplines became available only to specialists. Lamarck, trying to prevent the collapse of science threatening science into separate industries and maintain the connection that exists between them, created a series of works. In them, he gave a generalized view of geology, biology, chemistry, physics, etc.
The first of the works appeared in 1794. It is devoted to discussions about the nature of energy and matter. This work is called "Investigation of the causes of basic physical phenomena, especially regarding combustion." It was followed by the work of 1796, "Refutation of pneumatic theory ...". In these works, based more on philosophical reasoning than on empirical evidence, Jean Baptiste did not put forward new ideas, except for a few erroneous propositions.
In 1802, another essay appeared, Hydrogeology. Lamarck in this work presents the history of our planet as a series of ocean flooding of land and its further retreats. The growth of continents and the deposition of organogenic precipitation occurs, he believes, during flooding. Lamarck in this book anticipated the methods of facies analysis used by modern scientists. In addition, he expanded the time frame of the history of the earth, which were considered quite narrow in the 18th century and limited to several thousand years. However, this work of Jean Baptiste, like the two previous ones, did not receive much fame.
"Systematic Biology of Invertebrates"
Lamarck published a new book in 1800. It is called "Systematic Biology of Invertebrates." The scientist criticized the classification system of invertebrates proposed by Linnaeus. He created his own. When writing this work, Lamarck used the rich collection that he had collected over 30 years of his life. In this work, he relied not only on reasoning, as usual, but also on research and rich factual material. Lamarck made the main criterion for classification the homology of internal organs. This approach allowed the scientist to avoid the many mistakes made by Linnaeus, who attributed these or those organisms to one group only on the basis of external similarity, therefore this scientist got worms, mollusks and others in the general systematic section.
"Philosophy of Zoology"
By the time Lamarque was 60 years old, he knew everything that had been studied before him in the field of animals and plants. Now the scientist has set himself a new goal - to write a book where organisms would not just be described, but the laws of wildlife would be explained. In his new essay, Jean-Baptiste planned to show how plants and animals arose, how they developed and changed, and how they reached their present state. The scientist tried to prove that all of them were not created in their present state, but developed under the influence of natural laws of nature. In other words, Lamarck became the creator of the first evolutionary theory. In this regard, he was the forerunner of Darwin (pictured below). In 1809, the scientist printed his work. The discoveries of Jean Baptiste Lamarck are set forth in the book Philosophy of Zoology. Despite the name, it refers not only to animals, but also to wildlife in general. In this work, therefore, the evolutionary theory of Jean Baptiste Lamarck is described, thanks to which he is known today to the whole world.
The fate of the theory of Lamarck, the death of Jean Baptiste
It often happened in the history of science that contemporaries did not recognize great people and theories they created. Only after many years they received well-deserved recognition. This fate has not passed and Jean Baptiste. The evolutionary theory of Jean Baptiste Lamarck was not understood by contemporaries. Some scientists simply did not pay any attention to his composition, while others even laughed at him. Lamarck, counting on support, decided to show this work to Napoleon. However, the emperor, who was considered the patron of science, publicly ridiculed Jean Baptiste. Lamarck was blind at the end of his life. At the age of 85, forgotten by everyone, Jean Baptiste Lamarck died. The theory of evolution left by him as a legacy made his name immortal.
The essence of the theory of Lamarck
What is the essence of Lamarck’s theory? The scientist claimed that life on our planet arose naturally. At first simple organisms appeared. Gradually, over the course of millennia, they improved, changed until they reached the current state. Jean Baptiste argued that from living ancestors, unlike them and arranged more primitively, all living beings descend. In this, of course, Jean Baptiste Lamarck was right. The theory of evolution proposed by him, however, in some respects does not hold water.
Two reasons for the development of the organic world
Why did the species of plants and animals change, develop earlier and continue to improve now? The scientist also tried to answer this question. However, with all the indisputable genius, Lamarck could not correctly, materialistically explain this phenomenon. The scientist argued that the development of the organic world depends on two main reasons. The first is that animals and plants themselves seek to improve and change. Thus, the desire for progress is an integral internal property. The second reason is the impact on them of the environment in which organisms live. This environment, otherwise called the living environment, is formed from the impact on plants and animals of air, soil, moisture, heat, light, food, etc.
Environmental impact
The scientist believed that plants, as well as lower animals, directly and directly change under the influence of the environment. They acquire certain properties and form. For example, a plant grown on good soil takes a completely different look than the same type of plant that got bad soil. And grown in the shade does not at all look like grown in the light. In turn, animals also change, but this happens in a slightly different way. They form new habits under the influence of a changing environment. Constantly repeating, they develop various organs, exercise them. For example, an animal constantly living in the forest, which is forced to climb trees, appears grabbing limbs. And the representative of the fauna, who is forced to travel long distances all the time, has strong legs, hooves and others grow. In this case, we are not dealing with direct, but indirect environmental impact, which occurs through habits. Jean Baptiste, in addition, believed that certain signs that organisms acquire under the influence of the environment, can be inherited.
Recognized and unrecognized ideas of Lamarck
The achievements of science today allow us to assert that the theory of Jean Baptiste Lamarck was not true in everything. Scientists do not recognize that in the organic world there is some inexplicable and mysterious desire for improvement. After half a century, Darwin explained the appropriate structure of plants and animals, as well as how they adapt to the environment, in a slightly different way. He considered natural selection to be the main reason for evolution. However, the influence of environmental conditions on organisms, which occupies a significant place in the theory of Lamarck, is recognized by modern biology. Nevertheless, the inheritance of traits acquired during the life of an organism is denied. Science believes that new signs appear under the influence of mutations - changes that occur in the germ cells of organisms.
Despite this, the merits of Jean Baptiste Lamarck are great. He was the first to create a theory of the natural development of the whole organic world. Jean Baptiste Lamarck, whose contribution to the development of biology is very impressive, today enjoys deserved recognition from posterity.