14 WHAT EVOLUTION IS 



and animals known in his time, be- 

 lieved firmly in the immutability of 

 species and declared in favor of the 

 biblical account of special creation. 

 According to him there are as many 

 different species of plants and of an- 

 imals on the earth as there were dif- 

 ferent forms created by the Supreme 

 Being in the beginning. This view, 

 based upon the account in Genesis, 

 was thus set in strong contrast with 

 that of the origin of species through 

 descent with modification. 



The first radical exponent of mod- 

 ern organic evolution w^as Lamarck 

 (1744-1829) who published in 1809 

 his "Philosophic Zoologique." In 

 this volume Lamarck set forth a plea 

 that the plants and animals of to-day 

 had arisen by the modification of pre- 

 existing forms, and he further ad- 

 vanced an hypothesis as to the way 

 in w^hich this change had come about. 



