LAMARCK’S THEORY OF EVOLUTION 271 
shall then enter into sufficient details which I am 
here obliged to omit.* 
“ However, it is still objected that all we see stated 
regarding the state of living bodies are unalterable 
conditions in the preservation of their form, and it is 
thought that all the animals whom history has trans- 
mitted to us for two or three thousand years have 
always remained the same, and have lost nothing nor 
acquired anything in the perfecting of their organs 
and in the form of their parts. 
‘‘ While this apparent stability has for a long time 
been accepted as true, it has just been attempted to 
establish special proofs in a report on the collections 
of natural history brought from Egypt by the citizen 
Geoffroy.” 
Quotes three paragraphs in which the reporters 
(Cuvier and Geoffroy St. Hilaire) say that the mum- 
mied animals of Thebes and Memphis are perfectly 
similar to those of to-day. Then he goes on to say: 
‘‘T have seen them, these animals, and I believe in 
the conformity of their resemblance with the individ- 
uals of the same species which live to-day. Thus 
the animals which the Egyptians worshipped and 
embalmed two or three thousand years ago are still 
in every respect similar to those which actually live 
in that country. 
“ But it would be assuredly very singular that this 
should be otherwise; for the position of Egypt and 
its climate are still or very nearly the same as at 
former times. Therefore the animals which live there 
have not been compelled to change their habits. 
“There is, then, nothing in the observation which 
has just been reported which should be contrary to 
* ** See at the end of this discourse the sketch of a PAzlosophie zo0- 
logigue relative to this subject.” [This sketch was not added—only 
the title at the end of the book. | 
