CH. xviii The Evolution of Evolution Theories 291 



as the foundation of the whole of Biology." But the verdict 

 of the majority of naturalists in regard to Lamarck's doctrines 

 has not tended to be eulogistic. Cuvier, in his Eloge de M. 

 de Lamarck delivered before the French Academy in 1832, 

 said, "A system resting on such foundations may amuse 

 the imagination of a poet, etc., . . . but it cannot for a 

 moment bear the examination of any one who has dissected 

 the hand, the viscera, or even a feather." The great Cuvier 

 was a formidable obscurantist. 



But let us hear Lamarck himself: — 



" Nature in all her work proceeds gradually, and could not pro- 

 duce all the animals at once. At first she formed only the simplest, 

 and passed from these on to the most complex." 



" The limits of so-called species are not so constant and unvary- 

 ing as is commonly supposed. Spontaneous generation started 

 each particular series, but thereafter one form gives rise to another. 

 In life we should see, as it were, a ramified continuity if certain 

 species had not been lost." 



" The operations of Nature in the production of animals show 

 that there is a primary and predominant cause which gives to 

 animal life the power of progressive organisation, of gradually 

 complicating and perfecting not only the organism as a whole, but 

 each system of organs in particular." 



" First Law. Life by its inherent power tends continually to 

 increase the volume of every living body, and to extend the 

 dimensions of its parts up to a self-regulated limit. 



' ' Second Law. The production of a new organ in an animal body 

 results from the occurrence of some new need which continues to 

 make itself felt, and from a new movement which this need origin- 

 ates and sustains. 



" Third Law. The development of organs and their power of 

 action are constantly determined by the use of these organs. 



^^ Fourth Law. All that has been acquired, begun, or changed in 

 the structure of individuals during the course of their life is pre- 

 served in reproduction and transmitted to the new individuals 

 which spring from those which have experienced the changes." 



These four laws I have cited from Lamarck's Histoire Naturelle, 

 but in illustration of the emphasis with which he insisted on use 

 and disuse, I take the following passages, translated by Samuel 

 Butler, from the Philosophie Zoologique : — 



'• Every considerable and sustained change in the surroundinga 

 of Any animal involves a real change in its needs." 



