Evolution of Evolution-Theory. 217 



tion is also expressed by Spinoza and Hume, by Lessing 

 and Schelling, and by Kant and Herder. And Hegel 

 was nothing if not an evolutionist. 



The title " Speculative Evolutionists" is borrowed 

 from Prof. Osborn's history, to include a variety of 

 writers who yielded to the vice of unverified speculative 



Speculation. Evolutionists. 



We need not go further back than Benoit de Maillet 

 (1656-1738), the author of Telliamed. He believed in 

 the rapid transformation of organisms by changed 

 surroundings and habits, and in the transmission of 

 the resulting modifications, but he discounted even his 

 premonition of Lamarckism by deriving birds from 

 flying-fishes and man from the mermaid's husband. 



Of greater interest are the suggestions of the mathe- 

 matician Maupertuis (1698-1759). He distinctly stated 

 a pangenetic theory of heredity, as in the words "The 

 elementary particles which form the embryo are each 

 drawn from the corresponding structure in the parent, 

 and conserve a sort of recollection of their previous 

 form, so that in the offspring they will reflect and re- 

 produce a resemblance to the parents ". He supposed 

 that fortuitous variations might arise by the diversified 

 arrangement of the elementary particles, and anticipated 

 an even more modern doctrine in the suggestion that 

 new species might be physiologically isolated by being 

 sterile with other members of the stock. 



Diderot (1713-1784) proposed a theory of gradual de- 

 velopment from pre-existent germs, and, as Mr. Morley 

 and Prof. Osborn point out, revived the idea of the 

 survival of the fittest which Empedocles had so long 

 before suggested. It is also very interesting to find that 

 he thought of the particles of the organism as striving 

 through many failures to attain stable combinations, 

 a far-off hint of the modern conception of the struggle 

 of parts. 



Charles Bonnet (1720-1793) was driven by the failure 

 of his eyesight from valuable observations, e.g. on the 

 parthenogenesis of Aphides, to somewhat profitless 

 speculation. He is well known as the author of the 

 term " Evolutio ", which he applied, however, not to 



