PALAEONTOLOGY AND GEOLOGY 



mind is so important that the recognition of the com- 

 bination of such a succession of forms with an almost 

 unlimited extent of time by Darwin is what made his 

 theory meet with favour. 



Lamarck^" saw clearly the importance of the ques- 

 tion, but with true scientific caution he decided that 

 the evidence was against its acceptance. In a remark- 

 able passage he says : "It is still a question in my 

 mind whether the means nature has taken to assure 

 the preservation of species or races have been so in- 

 sufficient that entire races are now extinct or lost. 



"Yet the fossils found buried in the ground in so 

 many places, present to us the remains of a multitude 

 of different animals which have existed and amongst 



1° The ideas of Lamarck have suffered from the inaccessibility of his 

 works. There are in English only the Life and Work of Lamarck 

 by Professor Packard which does not give more than excerpts from 

 the Philosophic Zoologique and a translation of the whole treatise 

 by Professor Hugh Elliot. Students of evolution owe a great debt 

 of gratitude to Professor Packard for his indefatigable zeal in 

 bringing to light the almost forgotten facts of the life of the great 

 naturalist and in giving to him the recognition which was his due, 

 but in spite of the fact that the author is a fervent Lamarckian he 

 does not seem to understand Lamarck's philosophical point of view. 

 As for Professor Elliot, he has assumed the ungrateful task of 

 writing an introductory critique of Lamarck's ideas in which he 

 not only attempts to show that his theory of acquired traits is en- 

 tirely inferior to Darwin's theory of natural selection but he also 

 shows himself to be lamentably unable to present Lamarck's theory 

 clearly and accurately. ^ 



After a careful reading of Lamarck's original treatise, I have 

 tried, in the next chapter, to present his ideas simply, and to give 

 them the very high credit which so profound a thinker deserves. It 

 is certainly time that justice should be done him and that the Dar- 

 winians should take the theory of acquired traits as a serious com- 

 petitor and as a doctrine which in many ways is superior scien- 

 tifically to natural selection. Quotations are made from the French 

 edition of the Philosophic Zoologique edited by Charles Martins, 

 Paris, 1873. Parallel references to Professor Elliot's translation are 

 added in brackets. 



C 137 3 



