EIGHTEENTH CENTURY EVOLUTIONISTS 213 



Darwin, anticipated the views and erroneous 

 grounds of opinion of Lamarck in his Zoono- 

 mia.'' Among the passages abov^e quoted, and in 

 those following, we find the whole framework 

 and even in part the very language of Lamarck's 

 Four Laws. 



Erasmus Darwin again illustrates his theory 

 of progressive modification as seen in the evolu- 

 tion of Man:^ 



As labour strengthens the muscles employed, and 

 increases their bulk, it would seem that a few genera- 

 tions of labour or of indolence may in this respect 

 change the form and temperament of the body. . . . 

 Add to these the various changes produced in the 

 forms of mankind, by their early modes of exertion 

 . . . which became hereditary. 



In the succeeding pages he also applies the law 

 of transmission of acquired adaptations to the 

 lower animals ; for example, the snout of the pig, 

 the trunk of the elephant, the rough tongues of 

 cattle, and beaks of birds, "seem to have been 

 gradually produced during many generations by 

 the perpetual endeavour of the creatures to sup- 

 ply the want of food, and to have been delivered 

 to their posterity with constant improvement of 

 them for the purposes required." 



As regards the origin of plants, he at one point 



^Zoonomia, vol. 1, xxxi, xxxix. 



