Constantine Samuel Rafinesqm. 



in his study of natural forms he had conceived certain 

 opinions regarding the natural relationships of so-called 

 species and varieties ; these he first expressed, though 

 in very crude form, in 1814, in his work on Somiology. 

 Toward the latter part of his life he appears to have 

 arrived more definitely at that form of evolution which 

 may be said to find its best illustration in Lamarck. 

 He had not, apparently, thought out any connected 

 philosophic system of development; he had caught only 

 a glimpse of the great truth. Nor do his expressions 

 of his views bear evidence of having investigated, closely 

 and continuously, the problems only the outlines of 

 which he saw before him. Perhaps, allowing him to 

 speak for himself, it is better that one suppose him a 

 Lamarckian rather than a Darwinian. Darwin s great 

 work was in progress, and had been for many years, 

 though unknown to Rafinesque when he wrote,* in 1833, 

 as follows: 



&quot; I shall soon come out with my avowed principles about G. 

 and Sp. partly announced in 1814 in my principles of Somiology, 

 and which my experience .and researches have ever since confirmed. 

 The truth is that Species and perhaps Genera also, are forming 

 in organized beings by gradual deviations of shapes, forms and 

 organs, taking place in the lapse of time. There is a tendency to 

 deviations and mutations through plants and animals by gradual 



*Vide Herbarium Rafinesquianum, p. n aud p. 15. 1833. 



