LAMARCK 



ment to the progress of science/ Elliot should know 

 enough about physics to realise that the subtle fluids 

 were but a name for the same forces of heat and elec- 

 tricity whose nature we do not understand to-day, 

 and that we are again returning to the idea that they 

 are entities, or subtle fluids. Also biologists are unable 

 to show any physical basis of life and do postulate a 

 vital force, disguise it as they may. Lamarck thus 

 assumes that plants and the lower orders of animals 

 vary by the direct action of the physical environ- 

 ment. 



Somewhere in the progression of the animal, it be- 

 gins to attain an inner power which increases with the 

 growing complexity of the organism. The animal, at 

 this stage, no longer merely reacts to external stimuli 

 but possesses a nervous system so that "nature, al- 

 though obliged at first to borro\y from the surround- 

 ing medium the excitatory power for vital move- 

 ments and actions of imperfect animals, knew how 

 by a further elaboration of the animal organization 

 to convey that power right into the interior itself of 

 these beings, and finally was able to place that same 

 power at the disposition of the individual."^ The or- 

 ganism has reached the stage where it has desires, 

 needs beyond mere subsistence and propagation, emo- 

 tions, and will; it is more or less independent of its 

 environment and institutes its own actions. These 



7 Elliot, op. cit., p. Ixxi. 



8 Lamarck, op. cit., vol. I, p. 13 [p. 6]. 



C 177 ] 



