86 Heredity and Variation in 3Iodern Lights 



tion ; Heredity ; Natural Selection. His work was not as the laity 

 suppose, a sudden and unheralded revelation, but the first fruit of a 

 long and hitherto barren controversy. The occurrence of variation 

 from type, and the hereditary transmission of such variation had of 

 course been long familiar to practical men, and inferences as to the 

 possible bearing of those phenomena on the nature of specific 

 difference had been from time to time draAvn by naturalists. Mau- 

 pertuis, for example, wrote : " Ce qui nous reste h examiner, c'est 

 comment d'un seul individu, il a pu naitre tant d'esp^ces si diff^rentes." 

 And again : " La Nature contient le fonds de toutes ces vari^tds : 

 mais le hasard ou I'art les mettent en ceuvre. C'est ainsi que ceux 

 dont I'industrie s'applique k satisfaire le goftt des curieux, sont, pour 

 ainsi dire, createurs d'esp^ces nouvelles \" 



Such passages, of which many (though few so emphatic) can be 

 found in eighteenth century writers, indicate a true perception of the 

 mode of Evolution. The speculations hinted at by Buffon^, developed 

 by Erasmus Darwin, and independently proclaimed above all by 

 Lamarck, gave to the doctrine of descent a wide renown. The uni- 

 formitarian teaching which Lyell deduced from geological observation 

 had gained acceptance. The facts of geographical distribution^ had 

 been shown to be obviously inconsistent with the Mosaic legend 

 Prichard, and Lawrence, following the example of Blumenbach, had 

 successfully demonstrated that the races of Man could be regarded 

 as different forms of one species, contrary to the opinion up till then 

 received. These treatises all begin, it is true, with a profound 

 obeisance to the sons of Noah, but that performed, they continue on 

 strictly modern lines. The question of the mutability of species was 

 thus prominently raised. 



Those who rate Lamarck no higher than did Huxley in his con- 

 temptuous phrase " buccinator tantum,^' will scarcely deny that the 

 sound of the trumpet had carried far, or that its note was clear. If 

 then there were few who had already turned to evolution with 

 positive conviction, all scientific men must at least have known that 



^ Venus Physique, contenant deux Dissertations, Vune sur Vorigine des Hommes et des 

 Animaux: Et I'autre sur Vorigine des Noirs, La Haye, 1746, pp. 124 and 129. For an 

 introduction to the writings of Maupertuis I am indebted to an article by Professor 

 Lovejoy in Popular Sci. Monthly, 1902. 



^ For the fullest account of the views of these pioneers of Evolution, see the works of 

 Samuel Butler, especially Evolution, Old and New (2nd edit.) 1882. Butler's claims on 

 behalf of Buffon have met with some acceptance ; but after reading what Butler has said, 

 and a considerable part of Bulfou's own works, the word "hinted" seems to me a 

 BufiQciently correct description of the part he played. It is interesting to note that in 

 the chapter on the Ass, which contains some of his evolutionary passages, there is a 

 reference to "plusieurs idees tres-elevees sur la geniration" contained in the Letters of 

 MaupertuiH. 



» See especially W. Lawrence, Lectures on Physiology, London, 1823, pp. 213 f. 



