Jean Baptiste Lamarck: a brief biography. The evolutionary theory of Jean Baptiste Lamarck and his contribution to the development of biology

Jean Baptiste Lamarque, whose brief biography will be examined by us, is the first scientist who created an integral theory of the evolution of organisms. However, he also owns a number of other discoveries, less known. Do you know what important concept Jean Baptiste Lamarque introduced into science? Biology is a term that this scientist proposed in 1802. In addition, he first divided 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 Lamarque. A brief biography of him will give you a general idea of this figure of science.

Origin, childhood

JB Lamarck (years of life - 1744-1829) was born in a family castle, located in Picardy (France). His parents were middle-class noblemen. They wanted to see their son as a priest, so they identified Lamarck as a Jesuit school. His fate changed after his father's death. At the age of 16, he left school and volunteered for the acting army of Jean Baptiste Lamarque. 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 produced a former Jesuit college pupil into officers. However, the military career, brilliantly begun, as well as spiritual, Lamarck did not attract. The future scientist decided to retire. After a while he began to study medicine in the French capital Jean Baptiste Lamarque. A brief biography of him continues in Paris, where Lamarcke was especially attracted to natural science, mostly botany.

"Flora of France"

A talented and hardworking young scientist, after several years of studies, created a great deal of work in 3 volumes. The work "Flora of France" was called. In this work, a lot of plants are described, and there is also a guide how to determine them. This work brought fame to the beginning scientist, who was at that time Jean Baptiste Lamarque. Biography of Jean Baptiste is noted by membership in the Paris Academy of Sciences. It was given to him for his achievements. In the academy, Jean Baptiste Lamarque continued to successfully engage in botany. His biography, however, is not limited to studying it.

Jean Baptiste becomes a zoologist

When Jean Batista was about 50 years old, in 1793, his scientific activity changed radically. Lamarck worked in the Royal Botanical Garden, which was transformed at this time into the Museum of Natural History. In the museum there were no free departments of botany, so the scientist was invited to do zoology. After 10 years, Lamarck became the same connoisseur in this field, as he was in studying the flora.

New works of Batista

At the end of the 18th century, the development of science approached the 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 threatening science of disintegration into separate industries and preserve the connection existing between them, created a number of works. In them he gave a generalized view of geology, biology, chemistry, physics, and so on.

The first of the works appeared in 1794. It is devoted to reasoning about the nature of energy and matter. This work is called "Investigation of the causes of basic physical phenomena, especially those relating to combustion." It was followed by the work of 1796 "The refutation of the 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 work appeared, "Hydrogeology." Lamarck in this work presents the history of our planet as a series of floods by the ocean of land and its further deviations. The growth of continents and the deposition of organogenic precipitation occur, he believes, during flooding. Lamarck in this book anticipated the methods of facial analysis, which are used by modern scientists. In addition, he expanded the time frame of the history of the earth, which was considered quite narrow in the 18th century and was limited to several thousand years. However, this work of Jean Baptiste, like the previous two, was not well known.

"Systematic biology of invertebrates"

Lamarck in 1800 published a new book. It was called the "Systematic Biology of Invertebrates." The scientist criticized Linnew's invertebrate classification system. He created his own. Lamarck, while writing this work, enjoyed a rich collection, which he collected for 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 in the classification of homology of internal organs. This approach allowed the scientist to avoid the many mistakes made by Linnaeus, who attributed one or other organisms to one group only on the basis of external similarity, therefore this scientist had worms, mollusks and other things in the general systematic section.

"The philosophy of zoology"

By the time Lamarcka passed 60 years, 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 not simply described the organisms, and explained the laws of living nature. Jean Baptiste in his new work conceived to show how plants and animals emerged, how they evolved 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 respect, he was the predecessor of Darwin (pictured below). In 1809, the scientist published his work. Discoveries of Jean Baptiste Lamarck are set forth in the book "The philosophy of zoology." Despite the name, it says not only about animals, but also about wildlife in general. In this work, thus, the evolutionary theory of Jean Baptiste Lamarck is explained, thanks to which he is known today for the whole world.

The fate of Lamarck's theory, the death of Jean Baptiste

Often in the history of science it happened that contemporaries did not recognize great people and the theories they created. Only many years later they received a well-deserved recognition. This fate did not pass by Jean Baptiste. The evolutionary theory of Jean Baptiste Lamarck was not understood by contemporaries. Some scientists simply did not pay any attention to his work, while others did not even laugh 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 Batista. Lamarck at the end of his life became blind. At the age of 85, forgotten by everyone, Jean Baptiste Lamarque died. The theory of evolution, left to them in the heritage, made his name immortal.

The essence of Lamarck's theory

What is the essence of Lamarck's theory? The scientist claimed that life on our planet arose naturally. At first simple organisms appeared. Gradually, with the passage of millennia, they improved, changed until they reached the current state. Jean Baptiste argued that all living beings originate from ancestors, unlike them and arranged more primitively. Jean Baptiste Lamarck was right in this, of course. The theory of evolution, proposed by him, nevertheless in some respects does not stand up to criticism.

Two reasons for the development of the organic world

Why did the species of plants and animals change, evolve before and continue to improve now? The scientist tried to answer this question. However, despite all the indisputable genius, Lamarck was unable to explain this phenomenon in a materialistic way. The scientist argued that the development of the organic world depends on two main reasons. The first is that animals and plants in themselves tend to improve and change. Thus, the desire for progress is an intrinsic intrinsic property. The second reason is the impact on them of the environment in which organisms live. This environment, otherwise called the life environment, is formed from the impact on plants and animals of air, soil, moisture, heat, light, food, etc.

Influence of the living environment

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 a good soil acquires a completely different appearance than a plant with the same type that has bad land. And grown in the shade does not look like grown in the light. In turn, animals also change, but this is somewhat different. New habits are formed under the influence of a changing environment. Constantly repeating themselves, they develop various organs, exercise them. For example, a permanently living animal in the forest, which is forced to climb trees, has grasping limbs. A representative of the fauna, forced to move all the time over long distances, there are strong legs, hoofs grow, etc. In this case, we are not dealing with direct, but with indirect effects of the environment, which occurs through habits. Jean Baptiste, in addition, believed that those or other signs that organisms acquire under the influence of the environment, can be inherited.

Recognized and unacknowledged ideas of Lamarck

The achievements of science today allow us to assert that the theory of Jean Baptiste Lamarck was not entirely true. Scientists do not recognize that in the organic world there is some inexplicable and mysterious desire for perfection. Half a century later, Darwin explained the feasible structure of plants and animals, as well as how they adapt to the environment, somewhat differently. He considered natural selection as the main cause of evolution. However, modern biology recognizes the impact on organisms of environmental conditions, which occupies a significant place in the theory of Lamarck. Nevertheless, the inheritance of traits acquired during the life of the 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 became the first who created the theory of natural development of the entire organic world. Jean Baptiste Lamarck, whose contribution to the development of biology is very impressive, now enjoys deserved recognition of descendants.