196 THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



Thus stags have got horns, and cocks spurs, while fighting for their 

 mates. In fact, one is justified in assuming that all living creatures, different 

 from one another as they now are, nevertheless originate from one and the 

 same "primal filament," whose offspring have become changed as a result 

 of different conditions of life, this being confirmed by the existence of tran- 

 sition between all animal and vegetable forms, both higher and lower. This 

 theory undoubtedly sounds to a certain extent "Darwinian," but what dif- 

 ferentiates the grandfather's doctrine from the grandson's is the problem 

 each set out to solve: Erasmus Darwin really had no interest in the origin 

 of species; with him it was a question of obtaining as strong evidence as 

 possible for the epigenesis theory, which was a marked feature of his specu- 

 lations. Nor indeed was it this side of his work that evoked contemporary 

 interest; it was rather his speculations on the subject of the life-force and, 

 further, his theory of irritability and his observations of sense-impressions, 

 which he made with a view to confirming the latter theory and which in 

 a certain degree foreshadow Goethe's. All this afforded special interest to 

 the German natural philosophers, who not infrequently refer to his writings. 

 He was entirely forgotten by the succeeding generation; in fact, it was not 

 until after Charles Darwin had become world-famous that interest in Eras- 

 mus revived, when an attempt was made to see resemblances between his 

 speculations and those of his grandson. Some resemblance there certainly is, 

 but it is undeniable that the originator of the theory of selection had worked 

 with entirely different qualifications from his grandfather's in order to pro- 

 duce a universal theory of the evolution of life. 



In France biological speculation during the latter half of the eighteenth 

 century was essentially governed by Buffon's ideas. He and his friend Dau- 

 benton had, it will be remembered, carried out comparative investigations 

 into the anatomy of various animals, especially the bone-structure of mam- 

 mals. During the following epoch also French scientists were keenly occupied 

 in investigations of this kind, and natural philosophy, to which such investi- 

 gations were at that time referred, thereby assumed a more defined and prac- 

 tical character than in Germany. Moreover, its exponents stand out far 

 more clearly as the precursors of modern biology and deserve to be discussed 

 in connexion therewith. In particular, he who is regarded as the foremost 

 natural philosopher that France has produced — Lamarck — seems, in view 

 of the great influence he has exercised on modern research, to be most worthy 

 of record amongst its pioneers. A natural philosopher who, on the other 

 hand, is far more closely associated with the German speculation, and who 

 was actually connected with it, was Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. He may there- 

 fore suitably be described in this context. 



Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire was born at Etampes, near Paris, in 

 the year 177^, the son of a public official. His father had him educated for 



