BOOK II 



THE TBANSFORMIST HYPOTHESIS 

 CHAPTER IV 



THE FORERUNNERS AND FOUNDERS OF TRANSFORMISM 



The Forerunners: Buffon, Goethe, and Oken The Founders of Trans- 

 formism: Lamarck, Etienne Geoffrey- Sain t-Hilaire, and Charles 

 Darwin. 



1. The Forerunners : BUFFON, GOETHE, AND OKEN. 

 Two hypotheses only can be imagined which 

 explain the manifold changes of living forms which we 

 notice from the appearance of life on our globe down 

 to the fauna of the present day. These are, the hypo- 

 thesis of independent creations for each species, and 

 that of the connection of animal forms with each other 

 by descent or gradual transformations. It is there- 

 fore not astonishing to see the transformist hypo- 

 thesis appear at an early epoch in the mind of man, 

 if not in the form of a veritable scientific theory, at 

 least in that of a more or less vague philosophical 

 conception. It has thus been possible, by giving 

 a certain elasticity to the texts, to discover the 

 forerunners of Darwin among the Greek and Latin 

 philosophers Anaximander, Empedocles, and Lucre- 

 tius ; but the idea of evolution is there so hidden 

 in the midst of a shapeless mass of beliefs in spon- 



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