EVOLUTION, HEREDITY, EUGENICS 513 



The names being in Latin, a fixed language, are understood by all 

 people. Linnaeus was a systematist; Sachs calls him a " classifying, 

 coordinating, sub-ordinating machine." Sachs states: "Linnaeus' 

 greatest and most lasting service was in the certainty and precision 

 which he introduced in the art of describing." He was behind his 

 own time in Physiology, while his work in Morphology was super- 

 ficial. 



Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), the grandfather of Charles Dar- 

 win, was born in England. He was a distinguished physician, 

 philosopher and poet. Osborn called him the Poet of Evolution. 

 He asked questions directly from Nature. " Do some of the genera 

 perish by increased power of the enemies.? " " Do some animals 

 change in their nature .? " " Why do plants have poisonous juices ? " 

 " Many plants have arms, spines and stings for protection." 



His research and thought helped Charles Darwin. He perceived 

 the significance of color for protection. "Frogs vary color accord- 

 ing to environment." He noticed the adaptation o{ limbs to en- 

 vironment. He saw that the strong males propagate the species and 

 believed a little in the " Survival of the Fittest." With E. Darwin's 

 final work in 1802 culminated the ideas of the time. He had not 

 formulated any theory. He become the pioneer, setting up the 

 landmarks which served as the guides for subsequent investigations. 



Jeanne Baptiste Antoine de Monet — Chevalier de Lamarck (1744- 

 1829). — The name of Lamarck is intimately associated with x}lvq first 

 formulated theory of Evolution. He was a contemporary of Eras- 

 mus Darwin. Many of the views of Lamarck had been anticipated 

 by E. Darwin. Lamarck advanced a theory in 1809 that accounted 

 for variations by supposing that environment brought them about 

 directly or else through the efforts made by the animal to adjust 

 itself to its environment. Lamarck's theory perforce admitted 

 the transmission of acquired characters. 



Haeckel says: " To Lamarck will always belong the glory of 

 having worked out for the first time the theory of descent as an 

 independent scientific theory of the first order and as the Philo- 

 sophical foundation of the whole science of Biology." 



Lamarck's Four Laws of Evolution. — 



I. Life by its proper forces continues to increase the volume of 

 every body which possesses it as well as to increase the size of 

 its parts up to as great limits as it can bring itself. 



