196 FROM LAMARCK TO ST. HILAIRE. 



cated the doctrine of Catastrophism versus Unifor- 

 mity ; he also advanced, and later retracted, the 

 theory of a ' succession of special creations.' As 

 the chief founder of Comparative Anatomy and 

 Paleontology, he introduced the modern conception 

 of Paleontology as past Zoology. He first de- 

 scribed Anchitherium % and pointed out its resem- 

 blance to the Horse ; this is a form which, perhaps, 

 more than any other, is to-day part of the most 

 convincing fossil testimony of Evolution ; yet Cuvier 

 failed to see in it any proofs of the ' filiation ' hy- 

 pothesis he was opposing. His influence was almost 

 unbounded ; a favourite of Napoleon, he was able 

 to build up a great school in the Jardin des Plantes, 

 and exerted his political influence in keeping the 

 ' transformists ' out of position. He was followed by 

 De Candolle, the botanist, by Dumeril, the inver- 

 tebrate zoologist, by De Blainville, the paleontolo- 

 gist ; in Germany, by Vogt and Bronn. Richard 

 Owen partly shared Cuvier's views, and partly those 

 of St. Hilaire. 



GEOFFROY ST. HILAIRE (1772-1844), another 

 of the distinguished French naturalists -of the 

 early part of this century, was long a colleague 

 of Lamarck in the Jardin des Plantes. We cannot 

 read his works without perceiving that he was by 

 birth a philosopher, and by adoption a naturalist. 

 Although his theory of the causes was profoundly 

 different from that of Lamarck, he belonged to the 

 Buffon-Lamarck school of thought, as opposed to 



