THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



three of these writers were strong adherents of Dar- 

 winism, their only interest in Lamarck was as the 

 founder of an evolution whose views were premature 

 and lacking in any sound basis of fact, and their com- 

 parison of his ideas with those of Darwin succeeded 

 only in causing biologists to misunderstand and to 

 neglect his really scientific work. His theory of evo- 

 lution became merely the foil to enhance the value of 

 Darwinism. But the final and severest blow to a recog- 

 nition of his genius was given by Darwin. We shall 

 probably never know whether it was jealousy of his 

 great rival which called forth his contemptuous refer- 

 ences to Lamarck or whether that serious limitation 

 of Darwin's mind, which prevented him from being 

 able to follow abstract reasoning and which so fre- 

 quently drew from him the lament that he could not 

 understand philosophy, made it impossible for him 

 to understand the ideas underlying the doctrine of 

 the inheritance of acquired traits. It is, at least, cer- 

 tain that Darwin never referred to Lamarck except 

 to characterize his ideas as futile, or absurd, or rub- 

 bish. With this example in their minds it was easy 

 and natural for biologists, who had exalted Darwin's 

 genius into a mythical cult, to ignore Lamarck; and 

 even now during the revival of neo-Lamarckism, it is 

 difficult to find biologists who know what Lamarck 

 meant by his acquired traits. Even Packard who is 

 his protagonist, and Elliot who translated his Philo- 

 sophies seem, at times, not to distinguish between 



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