EIGHTEENTH CENTURY EVOLUTIONISTS 197 



also that in his speculative moments he wrote of 

 the chain of organic life from the zoophytes to 

 the monkeys and man, thus borrowing from Aris- 

 totle and suggesting Bonnet and his famous 

 scale. Buffon illustrates the direct influences of 

 environment in the changes observed in the dif- 

 ferent races of men as connected with differences 

 of climate. He carefully traces the modifications 

 which are due to the domestication of various 

 wild animals. He speaks of the formation of new 

 varieties of animals by artificial selection, and 

 shows that similar results may be produced in 

 Nature by migration, thus having in mind the 

 'geographical segregation' law later developed by 

 Wagner.^ 



The chain of ideas of the struggle for exist- 

 ence, the survival of the fittest, and the elimina- 

 tion of the least-perfected species, the contest 

 between the fecundity of certain species and their 

 constant destruction, are all clearly expressed in 

 various passages. Thus we find Buffon (1788) 

 anticipating Malthus" (1798) in the following 

 passage : 



1 Moriz Wagner: Die Entstehung der Arten durch rdumliche 

 Sonderung, Basle, 1889. 



2 Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) published his famous 

 work, An Essay on the Principle of Population as it affects the 

 Future Improvement of Society, in 1798, while Buffon made the 

 last addition to his Histoire Naturelle in 1788. As another in- 

 stance of continuity it is interesting to recall the obligation Dar- 

 win expresses to Malthus. 



