3X8 THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



and a work on fossil Mollusca, which is worthy to be associated with 

 Cuvier's contemporary works on extinct vertebrate animals. In the intro- 

 duction to his former work he deals for the last time with his theory of 

 evolution. Nature is here represented with greater emphasis than in his ear- 

 lier works as a creative force. "Nature is . . . an intermediary between God 

 and the various parts of the physical universe for the fulfilling of the divine 

 will." And "Nature has given to animal life the power of progressively con- 

 summating the organization and of developing and gradually perfecting it." 

 It is thus an inner striving after perfection that, besides the influence of en- 

 vironment, has here been the cause of evolution. This striving after evolu- 

 tion, which is also hinted at in his earlier writings, became, as we shall see, 

 a stumbling-block for Darwin, which evoked his opposition to Lamarck's 

 theory. It now remains to examine the hypotheses on which this wealth of 

 scientific production rests and the influence it had. 



Influence of Buff on and Bonnet on Lamarck 

 The scientist by whom Lamarck as well as other biologists in France at 

 that period was undoubtedly most influenced was Bufi"on. We recognize this 

 influence in Lamarck's emphatic assertion that only individuals exist in 

 reality, while the categories of the classification system are products of the 

 mind, as also in the whole of his general conception of life as one vast evo- 

 lutionary process of a purely physical character;^ even the very idea of 

 evolution as a result of habits of life and environment we find developed 

 in Buffon, who cites in proof thereof the featherless face of the rook and the 

 padded feet of the camel. If we compare these two scientists, we find that 

 BufFon is without doubt superior as a thinker; he realizes the difference be- 

 tween hypothesis and fact, as he is aware of the limitations of natural science 

 — things for which Lamarck has absolutely no mind. On the other hand, 

 Lamarck is decidedly superior in his knowledge of form and has a far keener 

 eye for classification, which is certainly not exclusively due to the fact that 

 he was acquainted with a greater number of forms than his predecessor. 



But Lamarck also learnt a good deal from Bonnet, as indeed he ex- 

 pressly acknowledges. The classification of the animal kingdom in one single 

 series was adopted by him from this source, as also the actual French expres- 

 sion for it — " khelle ' ' (scale). The idea of animals' ' ' degeneration ' ' through 

 the loss of certain organs is, however, reminiscent of Vicq d'Azyr. And, 



^ Among Lamarck's precursors it is also customary to mention BENoix de Maillet (1656- 

 1738), for a long time French consul in Egypt and the author of a work on natural philosophy 

 published under the name of Telliamed (the anagram of his surname), wherein is described in 

 an extremely fantastic manner how the entire earth was once covered by the sea, and the ances- 

 tors of all existent land-animals were aquatic animals, which gradually became accustomed to 

 living on land. It is, however, difficult to determine what influence this work, which was treated 

 with contempt by Voltaire and was speedily forgotten, may have had upon Lamarck. 



