FACTORS IN EVOLUTION 



I. PREFATORY 



In the early discussions on evolution 

 it soon became apparent that, com- 

 pared with the biblical account of 

 creation, descent with modification re- 

 quired a relatively enormous length 

 of time. This contrast between the 

 two views was used by Cuvier in his 

 opposition to Lamarck. Cuvier had 

 careful measurements made of the 

 skeletons of mummified Egyptian 

 animals and of their recent represen- 

 tatives. No significant differences 

 could be detected on comparing these 

 two sets of measurements and Cuvier, 

 therefore, concluded that if no meas- 

 ureable changes had overtaken ani- 

 mals in the three thousand years that 

 separated the mummified from the 

 modern forms, it was useless to con- 



