FROM LAMARCK TO ST. HILAIRE 229 



recognition, it is gratifying to note the admira- 

 tion which has been accorded to him in Germany 

 by Haeckel and others, by his countrymen, and 

 by a large school of American, English and Ital- 

 ian writers of the present day; to note, further, 

 that his theory of causes was finally taken up 

 and defended by Charles Darwin himself, and 

 that it forms the very heart of the biological sys- 

 tem of Herbert Spencer. 



None the less, it is now a question under dis- 

 cussion whether Lamarck's factor of the trans- 

 mission of acquired adaptations is a factor in 

 Evolution at all! If it prove to be no factor, La- 

 marck will sink gradually into obscurity as one 

 great figure in the history of opinion. If it prove 

 to be even an indirect factor, as in the modern 

 hypothesis of 'organic selection,' he will rise into 

 a more eminent position than he now holds — into 

 a rank not far below Darwin's. 



The development of Lamarck's views was, as 

 we have seen above, apparently coincident with 

 his turning from botany to zoology. His route of 

 observation lay along comparative zoology and 

 botany, as in after years Goethe's lay along the 

 comparative anatomy and morphology of plants 

 and animals. It seems that the most speculative of 

 all his writings were his earlier physical treatises. 

 One of these early works was his Rccherches 

 sur les Causes des principaux Faits plnjsiques. 



