542 Theory of Lamarck. 



existed throughout distinct periods, or, like the fossils of the 

 chalk, were, by the natural process of degradation, removed 

 from their original matrix, to be again entombed with the 

 races of a more recent epoch. Unless this difficult problem 

 be solved, it is clear that the application of the per-centage 

 test may be attended with the most fallacious results. To what 

 extent erroneous conclusions may already have been formed, 

 from the general neglect of those considerations so obviously 

 necessary in the examination of the crag, must be a subject 

 for future investigation. 



The author lastly notices some questions which have already 

 been discussed, by Professor Phillips, in the Encyclopedia 

 Metropolitana. * The most important of these is, the physical 

 relation existing between any one fossiliferous deposit, and 

 the locality in which the living types of its fossil species occur. 



Art. VIII. Short Communications. 



Theory of Lamarck, " Vis formativa" tyc. — Almost all 

 our English naturalists imagine that they exhibit great piety in 

 abusing that greatest of French naturalists, Lamarck. He is, 

 in particular, condemned in the Bridgewater Treatises, for 

 ascribing the production of new structures in animal bodies 

 " to a new want, which continues to stimulate, and to a new 

 movement which that want produces and cherishes." Now, 

 the venerable Mr. Kirby, whose orthodoxy few can doubt, 

 indulges this very same notion ; for, in his Bridgewater 

 Treatise, vol. ii. p. 40., he says, " We have seen the same 

 tendency in the Annelidans to approach or imitate terrestrial 

 forms, as if the marine and aquatic animals were anxious to 

 quit their fluid medium, and to become inhabitants of the dry 

 land. The animal living on shore and in the woods at St. 

 Vincent, taken for a molluscum by Mr. Guilding, appears 

 almost like a creature that had succeeded in such an attempt ! " 

 Now, I ask if Lamarck himself could have expressed himself 

 more strongly in favour of a " vis formativa?" I trust, 

 therefore, that this admirable naturalist, although a French- 

 man, will henceforward be mentioned in terms indicative of 

 better taste, and more Christian charity, than our English 

 naturalists have hitherto shown on the subject. If Mr. Kirby 

 says, as no doubt he will say, that it is a mere " facon de 

 parler," and that he meant to insinuate nothing against the 

 power of the Creator ; surely, the detractors of poor Lamarck 

 ought to allow the same excuse for a person who unfortunately 

 cannot now defend himself. — An Admirer of Lamarck. 



* See art. Geology. 



