THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 

 which are transmitted are limited to the genetic cells 

 which are confined to the organs of generation, the 

 sperm and the ovum. 



As has been mentioned before, Darwin never al- 

 lowed any credit to Lamarck. He states that he did 

 not derive from him a single idea; that his ideas were 

 poor.^^ It is well known that Lyell had a high estima- 

 tion of Lamarck's work and theory, and that it had a 

 great influence on him when he wrote his Principles 

 of Geology, the work which led directly to Darwin's 

 own belief in evolution. Darwin was always most 

 eager to obtain Lyell's support. He was much hurt 

 because his friend did not accept natural selection un- 

 reservedly and because he referred to the theory as a 

 modification of Lamarck's doctrine of development 

 and progression. In a letter to Lyell he wrote that 

 Plato, Buffon, and Erasmus Darwin had stated the 

 obvious truth that if species were not separately 

 created, they must have descended from other species. 

 Since Lamarck had done nothing more than this, there 

 is nothing else in common between the Origin of 

 Species and Lamarck. He thought Lyell was ruining 

 the cause by such suggestions because: "I consider, 

 after two deliberate readings, it [Lamarck's] is a 

 wretched book, and one from which (I well remem- 

 ber my surprise) I gained nothing. 



12 Darwin, Life and Letters, vol. II, p. 10. 

 ^^Ibid., vol. II, p. 199. 



c 182 : 



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