EVOLUTIONAL ZOOLOGY 213 



Geoffrey St. Hilaire, a colleague of Lamarck, will be re- 

 membered as the champion of the doctrine of transformism 

 in his famous debate in 1830 with Cuvier in the French Acad- 

 emy — a controversy which at the time stirred intellectual 

 Europe. The discussion, which was protracted through sev- 

 eral sessions of the Academy, resulted in a complete triumph 

 for Cuvier, who, by his greater authority, his far wider knowl- 

 edge of comparative anatomy and paleontology, and his supe- 

 rior skill in the use of the debater's art, secured an unequivocal 

 decision from the judges. The victory, thus won dialectically 

 by Cuvier for the immutability of species and fixity of plan 

 in nature, was a severe blow to the evolutionary party, which, 

 especially under the influence of Lamarck's teachings, was be- 

 ginning to make rapid progress on the continent. At the time, 

 the question was generally regarded as finally settled, and this 

 baneful effect continued to be felt to a certain extent, especially 

 in France, until the appearance of the "Origin of Species," 

 and probably accounts for the fact that Darwin's views, made 

 known a quarter of a century later, were much slower in tak- 

 ing root in France than in any other countr\^ in Europe. 



But in spite of this untoward incident, the storm-clouds 

 of evolutionism were gathering ominously, and from many 

 different sources influences were at work which were destined 

 to play an important part in the final result. The scene now 

 shifts from continental Europe to England, a country which, 

 as already stated, had rested during the preceding century in 

 an eddy of the evolutionary current. 



By the year 1830 — the same year in which Cuvier won his 

 victory over St.. Hilaire — geology had been rescued from the 

 realm of supernatural causation by the establishment of the 

 doctrine of uniformitarianism through the epoch-making work 

 of Hutton and Lyell which resulted in the complete over- 

 throw of the theory of castastrophism. The past changes of 

 the earth's surface were now explained, not by violent, inter- 

 mittent convulsions of nature, but by the constant action of 



