286 Theories of Evolution and Creation 



The First Scientific Theory 



Lamarck stands out as having attacked the problem of 

 evolution by appealing to a wide range of facts, and as hav- 

 ing embodied his interpretation of the process into the first 

 complete theory of descent. The influence of Cuvier, who 

 bitterly opposed Lamarck, largely prevented a wider con- 

 sideration of the fundamental issue. The merits of La- 

 marck's special theory we shall consider presently. The im- 

 portance of his writings consisted not so much in the validity 

 of his explanation as in his having made the process of 

 plant and animal evolution through the action of natural 

 forces intelligible to unprejudiced persons. Most of those 

 who by disposition or training had accepted the general 

 theory of transformation of species were not moved to 

 search for the specific actions and reactions of living things 

 and of the environment. As in our acceptance of gravity or 

 electricity we are content to use the ideas or the facts with- 

 out insisting upon a fundamental understanding. 



For half a century Lamarck's work was known only to 

 a comparatively few scholars, praised and admired by some 

 who overestimated the validity of his theory, ridiculed and 

 disdained by others who failed to see the significance of his 

 achievement. 



During the first half of the Nineteenth Century there 

 were being accumulated under the influence of the anti- 

 evolutionist Cuvier, of the anti-evolutionist von Baer, of 

 the skeptical geologist Charles Lyell, and of the anti- 

 evolutionist Agassiz, vast numbers of direct observations in 

 anatomy, in embryology, in geology, in morphology and in 

 paleontology. There were accumulated also records of hor- 

 ticulturists and animal breeders, the observations of travelers 

 and fanciers, and minute descriptions of plant and animal 

 forms by students of classification. By the middle of the 

 century this large mass of facts finally made it possible for 

 Charles Darwin to formulate the process of organic trans- 

 formation in terms that appealed to the common sense of 



