EVOLUTIONAL ZOOLOGY 209 



the phenomena of variation and heredity and their bearing 

 upon the mutabiHty of species. It is a fact of unusual inter- 

 est that he proposed a definite plan for the systematic study 

 of heredity by means of experimental interbreeding — a long 

 deferred project which is only now beginning to be realized. 

 He definitely recognized, furthermore, the principle of natural 

 selection or the elimination of the unfit, explaining the adap- 

 tations of animals to their environment as the result of the 

 conjoint action of variation and selection. Most of the his- 

 torians of the doctrine of descent have either overlooked or 

 misrepresented Maupertuis' views, and we owe to Professor 

 Love joy * the correct interpretation of the writings of this 

 important eighteenth century evolutionist. 



We should, if time permitted, next consider a group of 

 naturalists, the so-called nature-philosophers, of the eighteenth 

 and the first half of the nineteenth century, who are more 

 in the direct line of modern evolutionism than any of their 

 predecessors, with the exception of Maupertuis, and to them 

 we should turn for a more definite formulation of theories 

 of descent — to BufiFon, Erasmus Darwin, Lamarck, Goethe, 

 Treviranus and GeofiFroy St. Hilaire. But it is possible to 

 mention here only the most important of these pre-Darwinian 

 evolutionists. 



Varying opinions have been held as to the share that 

 should be accorded Buffon among the pioneers of evolution, 

 for, although his writings abound in explicit expressions of 

 belief in the transmutability of species, he often recoiled from 

 his conclusions as being in conflict with the dogmas of religious 

 faith. It is difficult to determine whether his retractions 

 were sincere or merely an ironical and perfunctory concession 

 to the prevailing orthodoxy of the day, but, however this may 

 be, his vacillating position has robbed him of much of the 

 credit which he would otherwise have received. It cannot 



*Lovejoy, Arthur, "Some Eighteenth Century Evolutionists," Popular Science 

 Monthly, July, 1904. 



