EIGHTEENTH CENTURY EVOLUTIONISTS 215 



While this chapter on Generation is a com- 

 paratively small part of the Zoonornia, we learn 

 that the volume as a whole attracted much atten- 

 tion at the time. The Scottish philosopher James 

 McCosh read the work while a student in Edin- 

 burgh. There it made a considerable sensation, 

 and was critically examined and opposed by 

 Thomas Brown, M.D., in a critique^ devoted 

 chiefly to the principles of psychologj^ and phys- 

 iology of heredity found in Darwin's volume, 

 with less attention to evolutionary ideas. Pas- 

 sages like the following show that Erasmus Dar- 

 win exposed himself to a line of criticism similar 

 to that which Charles Darwin applied to the theo- 

 ries of Lamarck: 



As the earth, to a considerable depth, abounds 

 with the recrements of organic life, Dr. Darwin 

 adopts the opinion, that it has been generated, rather 

 than created; the original quantity of matter hav- 

 ing been continually increased, by the processes of 

 animalization, and vegetation. This production of 

 the causes of effects he considers, as affording a more 

 magnificent idea of the infinite power of the Crea- 

 tor, than if he had simply caused the effects them- 

 selves; and, if the inconceivable be the source of the 

 magnificent, the opinion is just. It is contrary, how- 

 ever, to all the observations, which prove the proc- 

 esses of animal, and vegetable growth, to be the result 



^Thomas Brown: Observations on the Zoonomia of Erasmus 

 Darwin, M.D., Edinburgh, 1798, pp. 432-3, 464-7. 



