CHAPTER XIX 



SAMUEL BUTLER AND THE MEMORY THEORIES OF 



HEREDITY 



WE have laid stress upon the distinction established by 

 Roux between the two stages of development the auto- 

 matic and the functional because of the light which it 

 seems to throw upon the phylogenetic relation of form to 

 function. We have pointed out, too, the paramount role 

 that function plays in Roux's theories of development 

 and heredity, and we have brought out the close kinship 

 existing between his theory and that of Lamarck. For 

 Roux, as for Lamarck, the function creates the organ, and it 

 is only after long generations that the organ appears before 

 the function. 



It so happened that just 'about the time when Roux's 

 papers were beginning to appear a brilliant attempt was 

 made by Samuel Butler to revive and complete the 

 Lamarckian doctrine. 



A man of singular freshness and openness of mind, 

 combining in an extraordinary degree extreme intellectual 

 subtlety with a childlike simplicity of outlook, Butler was 

 one of the most fascinating figures of the ipth century. He 

 was not a professional biologist, and much of his biological 

 work is, for that reason, imperfect. But he brought to bear 

 upon the central problems of biology an unbiassed and 

 powerful intelligence, and his attitude to these problems, 

 just because it is that of a cultivated layman, is singularly 

 illuminating. 



He was not well acquainted with biological literature ; 

 he seems to have hit upon the main ideas of his theory of 

 life and habit in complete independence of Lamarck, and 



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