398 HISTORY OF SCIENCE. 



feet, and gradually ascending to the more highly organized or perfect; 

 all undergoing the influence of the circumstances surrounding them, 

 and by modification of their habits and organs, ever coming into that 

 harmonious adaptation to their environment which we now observe. 

 That the conditions which surround living things at the surface of the 

 earth have changed, and are still changing, were facts well established 

 in Lamarck's time ; and he observes that those persons who adopt the 

 first of the two above-mentioned conclusions will have to admit that 

 the Creator at the beginning foresaw all the various sets of conditions 

 under which living things would have to exist, and gave to each species 

 its immutable organization once for all. Moreover, the species sup- 

 posed to have been originally created at one time must, by reason of 

 their organization, incapable by hypothesis of change or adoption, 

 have become one after the other unable to survive the admitted changes 

 in their habitations and surroundings. If special interventions and 

 exertions of creative power be invoked for the production of new 

 species from time to time, the difficulties of the position are not re- 

 moved. Such special interventions in the order of things are not 

 claimed for the production of the individual plants and animals of any 

 species, nor for the production of the varieties of a species. Now the 

 distinctions into species, Lamarck contends, are arbitrary, as one species 

 shades insensibly into another; the characters which naturalists rely 

 upon for their discrimination are often very minute and insignificant ; 

 and he thinks that it is more likely that the Author of Nature should 

 have exerted His power in creating a few organizations capable of 

 development and adaptation, than that He should have engaged in 

 the immediate production of forms, distinguishable only by modifica- 

 tions of a kind which it is acknowledged the ordinary operations of 

 nature are competent to produce. 



GEORGE Louis LECLERC BUFFON (1707 1.788) was born at 

 Montbar in Burgundy of very wealthy parents, and he enjoyed all the 

 advantages of education and training which wealth could procure. 

 Buffon while a youth made the acquaintance at Dijon of a young 

 English nobleman, whose tutor happened to be well versed in scientific 

 studies, and it was perhaps this circumstance which turned Buffon's 

 thoughts to scientific pursuits. At twenty-one years of age he suc- 

 ceeded to his mother's estate, which put him in possession of an an- 

 nual income equal to .12,000 sterling. His wealth did not cause 

 him to relax his exertions in the pursuit of knowledge. Having visited 

 Italy, sojourned for a time in England, he returned to France, and 

 soon afterwards published translations of two famous English scientific 

 works, Kale's " Vegetable Statics " a;id Newton's " Fluxions." He 

 also carried out an experimental investigation into the strength oi 

 timber, and made a very large burning-glass with which he performed 

 some striking experiments that attracted much attention. Du Fay, 

 who was at the head of the management of the Jardin du Roi (now 



