218 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 
ferring to the warm-blooded animals alone, “ one is 
led to conclude that they have alike been produced 
from a similar living filament ” (p. 236); and again he 
expresses the conjecture that one and the same kind 
of living filament is and has been the cause of all 
organic life (p. 244). It does not follow that he was 
a “spermist,” since he strongly argued against the 
incasement or “ evolution” theory of Bonnet. 
2. Changes produced by differences of climate and 
even seasons. Thus “the sheep of warm climates are 
covered with hair instead of wool, and the hares and 
partridges of the latitudes which are long buried in 
snow become white during the winter months” (p. 
234). Onlya passing reference is made to this factor, 
and the effects of domestication are but cursorily re- 
ferred to. In this respect Darwin’s views differed 
much from Buffon’s, with whom they were the pri- 
mary causes in the modification of animals. 
The other factors or agencies are not referred to by 
Buffon, showing that Darwin was not indebted to 
Buffon, but thought out the matter in his own inde- 
pendent way. 
3. “Fifthly, from their first rudiment or primor- 
dium to the termination of their lives, all animals 
undergo perpetual transformations, which are in part 
produced by their own exertions in consequence of 
their desires and aversions, of their pleasures and their 
pains, or of irritations or of associations; and many 
of these acquired forms or propensities are transmitted 
to their posterity’ (p.'237).” The three sreat objects 
of desire are, he says, “lust, hunger, and security ” 
(p. 237). 
