252 NATURAL HISTORY. 



foliage of trees. Lamarck regarded this view of the 

 subject as a putting of the cart before the horse. He 

 thought that the adaptation between an animal and its 

 environment resulted from the fact that the animal had, so 

 to speak, been compelled to suit its structure to its sur- 

 roundings. He thought that it was the external condi- 

 tions which had gradually evoked the corresponding organ 

 or structure. In other words, he thought it was the 

 necessity for action which had produced the corresponding 

 parts. 



The contrast between the older view on this subject 

 and that held by Lamarck may be shown by a single 

 example. The giraffe will answer the purpose very well. 

 The giraffe,* as is well known, lives in a region where 

 droughts are of common occurrence, and where therefore 

 the herbage is very liable to become burnt up and 

 destroyed. Being a large animal, it requires considerable 

 quantities of vegetable food ; and being gregarious in its 

 habits, it is clear that it could not exist except in a 

 country where plant-life flourished luxuriantly. Owing, 

 however, to the length of its neck, it is enabled to survive 

 the long African droughts, since it can browse upon lofty 

 shrubs and trees, which are not much affected even by a 

 prolonged want of rain. 



Now, the older view of the matter would regard the 

 long neck of the giraffe as being a structure aboriginally 

 possessed by the species, and, in fact, specially given to 

 it for the purpose of adapting it for the conditions of its 

 life in its African home. On Lamarck's view of the 



* The giraffe is one of the instances given by Lamarck of animals whose peculi- 

 arities have been produced by their environment, but his remarks on this particular 

 case are here amplified. 



