Lamarck: biography and achievements. Evolution Theory and Its Errors

The term "evolution" is usually associated with the name of Charles Darwin. However, the question of the birth and development of life on Earth bothered the thinkers even in antiquity. One of the first scientists who tried to formulate an evolutionary theory was Lamarck. The biography of the scientist contains many other interesting facts. More about this, we'll talk in the article.

Jean Lamarque: Biography

In 1744 in the town of Bazante, Jean Lamarque was born. His family, though descended from a noble aristocratic family, was poor. For lack of money, parents sent their son to study at a Jesuit college. He was supposed to become a priest. No one even suspected who Lamarck would later become.

Biography of the future scientist turned into another channel after the death of his father. He dropped out of college and went into the army. At the age of 23 he became an officer. In 1772, after leaving the service, Jean Baptiste Lamarck entered the medical school in Paris. In Paris, he discovers botany, and in time, zoology.

Thanks to his perseverance and talent, he managed to express himself in the scientific community. Fame brings him a three-volume collection on the classification of plants in France. After that, he works on a collection of plants for the royal botanical garden. In 1783 he became a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences.

Achievements in Biology

After the publication of the collection of the French Flora in 1778, Jean Baptiste became one of the most outstanding scientists-botanists of his time. The book contained special dichotomous definitions for a convenient search for plants, which are used in our time.

Already at a fairly mature age, the scientist changes the profile of the scientific sphere. He becomes a professor at the Museum of Natural History, where he begins to teach zoology. At this time, Lamarck pays special attention to microorganisms, insects and worms.

Carefully studying their nature, he introduces the term "invertebrates" and divides them into ten classes, although only two have been singled out before. In 1822, the seventh volume of his book, The Natural History of Invertebrates, appears, in which he expresses all his observations.

Of course, this is not all the merits that distinguished Lamarck. The biography of this naturalist, botanist and zoologist has several other noteworthy points. Simultaneously with German researcher Gottfried Treviranus he introduces the modern meaning of the term "biology". Lamarck also creates books on atmospheric and physical phenomena, hydrogeology and conscious human activity.

Philosophy of zoology

His main work, The Philosophy of Zoology, Jean Baptiste Lamarck publishes in 1809. In it, the scientist presents a holistic and structured theory about the evolution of living beings. In his opinion, primitive life emerged from inorganic matter, and then began a rapid development.

He rejected the constancy of species, believing that each of them is peculiar to change. In his opinion, each organism develops from simple to complex, moving along the "steps" of evolution from the ciliate to mammals. In turn, within each step, differences and offshoots are formed, which are manifested as genera and species.

In his theory he singled out two basic laws:

• The law of exercise and non-exercise.
• The law of inheritance of acquired characteristics.

Lamarck believed that plants and animals change under the influence of the environment. To adapt to the climate, soil, way of harvesting food, etc., living organisms exercise or do not exercise (use or not use) certain organs. During this process, the bodies can change the appearance and functions, and these changes are transmitted to the descendants. As examples, he cited the elongation of the neck of a giraffe and the acquisition of blindness by moles.

Errors in theory

Lamarck's views caused a lot of controversy and ambiguous statements. His assumption about the variability of biological species and their gradual complication is maintained by science even now. He was also partially right, formulating the law on the exercise of organs.

However, there are erroneous propositions of Lamarck's theory of evolution. Modern science has refuted his assertion that life continues to spontaneously germinate from the inorganic environment. He also made a mistake in establishing the causes and principles of inheritance. Thus, Lamarck believed that all living things change because of his innate desire for perfection, and the acquired qualities are necessarily inherited by posterity.

The experiments of August Weisman refuted this. The scientist cut off the tails of mice and watched them for 20 generations. The changes did not affect the offspring. Later it was concluded that the new quality is inherited only when it is the result of a genetic mutation.