Il8 THE HISTOHY OF CKEATION. 



occasion Cuvier remained the acknowledged victor, and 

 since tliat time very little, or rather nothing, more has he n 

 done in France to further the development of the Doctriue 

 of Filiation, and complete the monistic theory of development. 

 This is evidently to be ascribed principally to the repressive 

 influence exercised by Cuvier's great authority. Even at 

 the present day the majority of the French naturalists are 

 the disciples and blind followers of Cuvier. In no civilized 

 country of Europe has Darwin's doctrine had so little effect 

 and been so little understood as in France, so that in the 

 further course of our examination we need not take the 

 French naturalists into consideration. At most, there are 

 two distinguished botanists, among the recent French 

 naturalists, whom we may mention as having ventured 

 to express themselves in favour of the mutability and 

 transformation of species. These two men are Naudin 

 (1852) and Lecoq (1854^). 



Having discussed the early services of German and 

 French nature-philosophy in establishing the doctrine of 

 descent, we turn to the third great country of Europe, to 

 free England, which during the last ten years has become 

 the chief seat and starting-point for the further working out 

 and definite establishment of the theory of development. 

 Englishmen, who now take such an active part in every 

 great scientific progress of humanity, and are the first to 

 promote the eternal truths of natural science, at the 

 beginning of the century took but little part in the conti- 

 nental nature-philosophy and its most important progress, 

 the Theory of Descent. Almost the only earlier English 

 naturalist whom we have here to mention is Erasmus 

 Darwin, the grandfather of the reformer of the Theory of 



