LAMARCK AND MR. DARWIN. 253 



siderable effect is ascribed by Mr. Darwin to use and 

 disuse, which involves, as has been already said, the 

 modification of a structure in accordance with the 

 wishes of its possessor. 



According to Lamarck, genera and species have been 

 evolved, in the main, by exactly the same process as 

 that by which human inventions and civilisations are 

 now progressing; and this involves that intelligence, 

 ingenuity, heroism, and all the elements of romance, 

 should have had the main share in the development 

 of every herb and living creature around us. 



I take the following brief outline of the most im- 

 portant part of Lamarck's theory from vol. xxxvi. of the 

 Naturalist's Library (Edinburgh, 1843) : 



"The more simple bodies," says the editor, giving 

 Lamarck's opinion without endorsing it, " are easily 

 formed, and this being the case, it is easy to conceive 

 how in the lapse of time animals of a more complex 

 structure should be produced, for it must be admitted as 

 a fundamental law, that the production of anew organ in 

 an animal body results from any new want or desire it 

 may experience. The first effort of a being just begin- 

 ning to develop itself must be to procure subsistence, 

 and hence in time there comes to be produced a 

 stomach or alimentary cavity." (Thus we saw that the 

 amoeba is in the habit of " extemporising " a stomach 

 when it wants one.) "Other wants occasioned by 

 circumstances will lead to other efforts, which in their 

 turn will generate new organs." 



Lamarck's wonderful conception was hampered by 

 an unnecessary adjunct, namely, a belief in an inherent 



