ANTICIPATION AND INTERPRETATION 23 



degradation, changements insensible ct continu. 

 denature (e), dont la nature a ete changee. 

 evolution, serie de transformations successives et 



progressives, 

 filiation, lien de parente entre les parents et leurs 



enfants, lorsqu'on le considere dans la per- 



sonne de ces derniers. 

 transformation, passage d'une forme a une autre, 

 transformisme, doctrine biologique, suivant la- 



quelle les especes animales et vegetales se 



transforment et donnent naissance a de nou- 



velles especes sous I'influence de I'adapta- 



tion. . . . 



For the first half of the nineteenth century, 

 Evolution was known mainly as the Xamarckian 

 theory,' just as later it universally became the 

 'Darwinian theory'; while very recently 'La- 

 marckism,' signifying transmission of acquired 

 adaptations, and 'Darwinism,' signifying adap- 

 tation through natural selection, have each ac- 

 quired special meanings, and the comprehensive 

 term 'Evolution' has finally come in as the per- 

 manent designation of the law. This embraces 

 more and more as our knowledge advances, so we 

 speak even of the first naturalistic views of the 

 gradual succession of species as Evolution be- 

 cause they contained the idea in the germ. 



The Scientific Method of Interpretation 



The slow discovery of scientific modes of ob- 

 servation and interpretation constituted the most 



