xxi EVOLUTION OF EVOLUTION THEORIES 419 



theory of descent as an independent scientific generalisa- 

 tion of the first order, as the foundation of the whole 

 of Biology." But the fact is that Lamarck is much more 

 appreciated now than he was by his contemporaries. 

 Thus Cuvier. in his Eloge de M. de Lamarck delivered 

 before the French Academy in 1832, said, " A system 

 resting on such foundations may amuse the imagination 

 of a poet, etc., . . . but it cannot for a moment bear the 

 examination of any one who has dissected the hand, 

 the viscera, or even a feather." Cuvier was an investi- 

 gator of the highest rank, yet was not free from ob- 

 scurantism. 



Let us hear Lamarck himself :- 



" Nature in all her work proceeds gradually, and could not pro- 

 duce all the animals at once. At first she formed only the simplest, 

 and passed from these on to the most complex." 



" The limits of so-called species are not so constant and unvarying 

 as is commonly supposed. Spontaneous generation started each 

 particular series, but thereafter one form gives rise to another. 

 In life we should see, as it were, a ramified continuity if certain 

 species had not been lost." 



" The operations of Nature in the production of animals show 

 that there is a primary and predominant cause which gives to 

 animal life the power of progressive organisation, of gradually 

 complicating and perfecting not only the organism as a whole, but 

 each system of organs in particular." 



" First Law. Life by its inherent power tends continually to 

 increase the volume of every living body, and to extend the dimen- 

 sions of its parts up to a self- regulated limit. 



" Second Law. The production of a new organ in an animal body 

 results from the occurrence of some new need which continues to 

 make itself felt, and from a new movement which this need originates 

 and sustains. 



" Third Law. The development of organs and their power of 

 action are constantly determined by the use of these organs. 



" Fourth Law. All that has been acquired, begun, or changed in 

 the structure of individuals during the course of their life is pre- 

 served in reproduction and transmitted to the new individuals 

 which spring from those which have experienced the changes." 



These four laws are from Lamarck's Histoire Naturelle. 

 The following passages, translated by Samuel Butler from 

 the Philosophie Zoologique, give a further statement of 



