28 THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE ANIMAL WORLD 



who was, besides, the determined champion of the 

 fixity of species. There is therefore nothing sur- 

 prising in the fact that Cuvier never even deigned 

 to discuss seriously the ideas of Lamarck, while he 

 waged with his other colleague, Etienne Geoffroy- 

 Saint-Hilaire, a resounding polemic which excited 

 the whole of scientific Europe. 



We can sum up in a few simple and fundamental 

 propositions the broad lines of the Lamarckian 

 philosophy : 



1. Nature herself creates by means of direct 

 or spontaneous generation, the first traces of life 

 in gelatinous masses for animals and in mucilaginous 

 ones in the case of vegetables, into which masses 

 penetrate subtle fluids, particularly abundant in 

 warm and moist places. These fluids, by enlarging 

 the interstices of the gelatinous mass, transform 

 it into cellular tissue, and render it fit for the phe- 

 nomena of life. 



2. Living beings have formed, since their first 

 appearance on this globe, several co-ordinate series 

 which have developed from the simple to the most 

 complex forms, and realize the various phases of a 

 pre-existing plan made by the supreme Author of all 

 things. 



3. The development of this plan of progression is 

 hindered by external circumstances, which give to 

 animals certain wants and, later, certain habits. 

 These necessitate the more frequent use of this or 

 that organ, which develops and enlarges it, while 

 disuse diminishes and finally causes it to disappear. 



4. It follows that external circumstances in- 

 fluence the form and organization of animals. 



