NEOLAMARCKISM 3 8 3 
resentative men more or less endorsed Darwin’s 
views, or at least some form of evolution, and owing 
largely to their efforts in scientific circles and in the 
popular press, the doctrine of descent rapidly per- 
meated every avenue of thought and became gen- 
erally accepted. 
Meanwhile, the general doctrine of evolution thus 
proved, and the “survival of the fittest’ an accom- 
plished fact, the next step was to ascertain “ how,” 
as Cope asked, “the fittest originated?” It was felt 
by some that natural selection alone was not ade- 
quate to explain the first steps in the origin of 
genera, families, orders, classes, and branches or 
phyla. It was perceived by some that natural selec- 
tion by itself was not a vera causa, an efficient agent, 
but was passive, and rather expressed the results of 
the operations of a series of factors. The transform- 
ing should naturaily precede the action of the selec- 
tive agencies. 
We were, then, in our quest for the factors of or- 
ganic evolution, obliged to fall back on the action of 
the phvsico-chemical forces such as light, or its ab- 
sence, heat, cold, change of climate; and the physio- 
logical agencies of food, or in other words on changes 
in the physical environment, as well as in the biologi- 
cal environment. Lamarck was the first one who, 
owing to his many years’ training in systematic botany 
and zoédlogy, and_ his philosophic breadth, had stated 
more fully and authoritatively than any one else the 
results of changes in the action of the primary factors 
of evolution. Hence a return on the part of many 
in Europe, and especially in America, to Lamarckism 
