170 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



said to have wants or actions, become modified ? To this 

 he replies, that they are modified by the changes in their 

 nutritive processes, which are effected by changing circum- 

 stances ; and it does not seem to have occurred to him that 

 such changes might be as well supposed to take place among 

 animals. 



When we have said that Lamarck felt that mere specula- 

 tion was not the way to arrive at the origin of species, but 

 that it was necessary, in order to the establishment of any 

 sound theory on the subject, to discover by observation 

 or otherwise, some vera causa, competent to give rise to 

 them ; that he affirmed the true order of classification 

 to coincide with the order of their development one from 

 another ; that he insisted on the necessity of allowing 

 sufficient time, very strongly ; and that all the varieties of 

 instinct and reason were traced back by him to the same 

 cause as that which has given rise to species, we have enu- 

 merated his chief contributions to the advance of the ques- 

 tion. On the other hand, from his ignorance of any power 

 In Nature competent to modify the structure of animals, 

 except the development of parts, or atrophy of them, in 

 consequence of a change of needs, Lamarck was led to attach 

 infinitely greater weight than it deserves to this agency, 

 and the absurdities into which he was led have met with 

 deserved condemnation. Of the struggle for existence, on 

 which, as, we shall see, Mr. Darwin lays such great stress, 

 he had no conception ; indeed, he doubts whether there 

 really are such things as extinct species, unless they be such 

 large animals as may have met their death at the hands of 

 man ; and so little does he dream of there being any other 

 destructive causes of work, that, in discussing the possible 

 existence of fossil shells, he asks, " Pourquoi d'ailleurs 

 seroient-ils perdues des que 1'homme n'a pu opdrer leur 

 destruction ? " (Phil. Zoo/., vol. i. p. 77.) Of the influence 

 of selection Lamarck has as little notion, and he makes no 

 use of the wonderful phenomena which are exhibited by 

 domesticated animals, and illustrate its powers. The vast 

 influence of Cuvier was employed against the Lamarckian 

 views, and, as the untenability of some of his conclusions 

 was easily shown, his doctrines sank under the opprobrium 

 of scientific, as well as of theological, heterodoxy. Nor 

 have the efforts made of late years to revive them tended 

 to re-establish their credit in the minds of sound thinkers 

 acquainted with the facts of the case ; indeed it may be 



