DARWIN AND DARWINISM 73 



Imrtonary doctrine will make this even more evi- 

 dent. 



Evolution is an ancient theory. Its modern 

 renaissance, with which alone we are here con- 

 cerned, was due in the first place to Lamarck, 

 just half a century before the first edition of 

 Darwin's "Origin of Species" was published. 

 Jean Lamarck appeared before the world in 1809 

 with his "Philosophic Zoologique," in which he 

 ascribed the evolution of species to the use or 

 disuse of the various organs. His doctrine es- 

 sentially implied the possibility of the transmis- 

 sion of acquired properties by the individual to 

 his descendants. Darwin, fifty years later, was 

 not to disregard this theory, but merely assigned 

 greater importance to his own specific doctrine 

 of natural selection. Hardly another fifty years 

 elapsed and Darwin's fading star was to be again 

 outshone by the reappearance of the Lamarckian 

 comet, under a new form and under the new name 

 of Neo-Lamarckianism. Sir Bertram Windle 

 offers a very apposite illustration of the differ- 

 ence between Lamarck's and Darwin's theories 

 in the case of the giraffe as explained according 

 to their respective views: 



The giraffe is provided with an extraordinary long neck and 

 Very tall forelegs. These he acquired, according to Lamarck's 

 view, by constantly stretching after the foliage of trees, on 

 which he feeds, and by ever reaching after higher and yet 

 higher boughs. According to the Darwinian view certain 

 giraffes were by reason of causes inherent in the embryo pro- 



