Lamarck's philosophy. hi 



dividual development of organisms, as well as by their com- 

 parative anatomy and by the parallelism of these series of 

 development. Bllchner showed very clearly that, even from 

 such data alone, the derivation of the different organic 

 species from common primary forms followed as a necessary 

 conclusion, and that the origin of these original primary 

 forms could only be conceived of as the result of a sponta- 

 neous generation. 



We now tiu-n from the German to the French Nature- 

 philosophers, who have likewise held the Theory of Descent, 

 since the beginning of the present century. At their head 

 stands Jean Lamarck, who occupies the first place next 

 to Darwin and Goethe in the history of the Doctrine of 

 Filiation. To him will always belong the immortal glory of 

 having for the first time worked out the Theory of Descent, 

 as an independent scientific theory of the fii'st order, and as 

 the philosophical foundation of the whole science of Biology. 

 Although Lamarck was born as early as 1744?, he did not 

 begin the publication of his theory until the commence- 

 ment of the present century, in 1801, and established it more 

 fully only in 1809, in his classic " Philosophic Zoologique." ^ 

 This admirable work is the first connected exposition of the 

 Theory of Descent carried out strictly into all its conse- 

 quences. By its purely mechanical method of viewing 

 organic nature, and the strictly philosophical proofs brought 

 forward in it, Lamarck's work is raised far above the pre- 

 vailing dualistic views of his time ; and with the exception 

 of Darwin's work, which appeared just half a century later, 

 we know of none which we could in this respect place 

 by the side of the " Philosophic Zoologique." How far it was 

 in advance of its time is perhaps best seen ftom the cir- 



