DIVERGENCE 287 



This last law contains the principle, fundamental in his 

 conception of evolution for which Lamarck is best 

 known, viz. : that acquired characters are transmitted to the 

 offspring. 



While Lamarck was thus working in zoology and 

 paleontology, an Englishman, Thomas Robert Malthus, 

 was working upon social problems and evolving truths 

 that were destined to exert a profound influence upon 

 some who were to follow. In 1798 he published an im- 

 portant " Essay on the Principle of Population as it 

 Affects the Future Improvement of Society," of which a 

 second improved edition appeared in 1803. The truth 

 discovered by Malthus was that population at all times 

 has a tendency to outgrow subsistence. The population 

 increases in geometrical progression, the means of sub- 

 sistence in arithmetical progression, so that it is only 

 starvation that keeps the population in check. The only 

 means of preventing overpopulation is moral restraint. 



The cogent reasoning in the essay resulted in the 

 introduction of a new principle the Malthusian doctrine 

 into economics and led to considerable modification in 

 the poor-laws of England. 



Lamarck's work and teachings were eclipsed by the 

 somewhat bitter opposition as well as brilliant work of 

 his compatriot, Cuvier, and were neglected for many 

 years when they were revived by the Neo-Lamarckians 

 who arose in an endeavor to refute Darwin. 



In 1844, Robert Chambers published, without any 

 name upon the title page, a little book entitled " Ves- 

 tiges of the Natural History of Creation" that fore- 

 shadowed the cosmical evolution to be popularized by 

 Herbert Spencer. The book was republished in 1846, 

 but, though apparently widely read, met with so much 

 opposition from religious quarters that it has almost 

 been forgotten. " The book was not primarily designed, 

 as many have intimated in their criticisms and as the 

 title might be thought partly to imply, to establish 

 a new theory respecting the origin of animate nature; 



