872 THE THEORIES OF EVOLUTION 



ception of evolution and its strictly positivist method. 

 Ridiculous statements have been attributed to La- 

 marck, for instance, the statement that if the giraffe 

 possesses a long neck it is because it strove for it dili- 

 gently. Lamarck never expressed such a thought, 

 although we must confess that the state of psycholog- 

 ical knowledge in his days enabled him to word his 

 explanations relative to the intervention of the ani- 

 mal's will in the activity of certain parts of its body 

 in a way which the more searching psychology of to- 

 day would no longer countenance. It seems strange 

 therefore to hear scientists mention the "judgments" 

 passed by elements of the tissues. 



We need not dwell any longer upon this peculiar 

 variety of Lamarckism. It has only retained the per- 

 ishable part of Lamarck's theories — their form and 

 the few details which modern science rejects. 



Should Lamarckism be regarded as the antithesis of 

 Darwinism, especially of Darwinism as formulated in 

 Darwin's books? We do not think that such a view is 

 justified. Not only did Darwin countenance in his 

 writings many of the so-called "Lamarckian concep- 

 tions," but even leaving aside the transformist basis 

 common to both systems, we may state that Lamarck- 

 ian and Darwinian factors are in no wise irreconcil- 

 able. Darwin does not occupy himself with the origin 

 of variations; Lamarck concentrates his attention on 



