212 EVOLUTION IN BIOLOGY 



VI 



ment of his views, in the " Philosophic 

 Zoologique," did not take place until 1809. 



The " Biologie " and the " Philosophic Zoolo- 

 gique " are both very remarkable productions, and 

 are still worthy of attentive study, but they fell 

 upon evil times. The vast authority of Cuvier 

 was employed in support of the traditionally 

 respectable hypotheses of special creation and of 

 catastrophism ; and the wild speculations of the 

 " Discours sur les Revolutions de la Surface du 

 Globe " were held to be models of sound scientific 

 thinking, while the really much more sober and 

 philosophical hypotheses of the " Hydrogeologie " 

 were scouted. For many years it was the fashion 

 to speak of Lamarck with ridicule, while Trevir- 

 anus was altogether ignored. 



Nevertheless, the work had been done. The 

 conception of evolution was henceforward irrepres- 

 sible, and it incessantly reappears, in one shape or 

 another, 1 up to the year 1858, when Mr. Darwin 

 and Mr. Wallace published their " Theory of 

 Natural Selection." The "Origin of Species" 

 appeared in 1859 ; and it is within the knowledge 

 of all whose memories go back to that time, that, 

 henceforward, the doctrine of evolution has 

 assumed a position arid acquired an importance 

 which it never before possessed. In the " Origin 

 of Species," and in his other numerous and 



1 See the "Historical Sketch " prefixed to the last edition of 

 the Origin of Species. 



