PART V. FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



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CHAPTER XXIV 



Views of Buffon, Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck. 



WE shall have occasion to point out in a subsequent chapter 

 that many organisms exhibit characters which it is extremely 

 difficult, if not impossible, to bring into any direct relation- 

 ship with the environment, but this fact does not invalidate 

 the generalization that the most striking feature of all living 

 things is adaptation to the conditions under which they have to 

 carry on their existence. In seeking for an explanation of the 

 means whereby organic evolution has been effected, this fact 

 must constantly be borne in mind, and, as we have already said, 

 no theory can be considered adequate which does not take 

 fully into account the phenomena of adaptation, and offer some 

 reasonable explanation of the wonderful harmony which exists 

 between living things and their surroundings. 



We have said before that the theory of organic evolution is no 

 new thing, but can be traced back even to the ancient Greek 

 philosophers. In the middle ages such ideas were thrust into 

 the background, along with other fruits of Greek and Roman 

 intellectual activity, and to a large extent supplanted by the 

 teachings of dogmatic theology. With the revival of scientific 

 inquiry, however, the theory of organic evolution, as opposed to 

 the doctrine of special creation and the immutability of species, 

 again began to occupy a prominent place in the minds of 

 thinking men, and a brief consideration of the views of some of 

 the chief philosophical biologists of the last two centuries will 

 perhaps form the most fitting introduction to this part of our 

 subject. 



The celebrated French naturalist, Buffon (17071788), who 

 held the post of Superintendent of the Jardin des Plantes and, 

 in conjunction with his colleagues, published a large number of 

 volumes of Natural History, was one of those who had at any 



