FROM LAMARCK TO ST. HILAIRE 243 



source of the ungulates. Advancing upon the earth, 

 they experienced the need of having longer limbs, 

 their toes became elongated, and the habit of resting 

 upon their four feet during the greater part of the 

 day has caused a thick horn to arise, which envelops 

 the extremity of the toes of their feet. The other 

 mammals remained amphibious, like the seals. 



He also explains the origin of the horns in the 

 ruminant animals by the efforts which they have 

 made to butt their heads together in their periods 

 of anger; thus has been formed a secretion of 

 matter upon the forehead. The types of rumi- 

 nants that have been exposed to the attacks of 

 carnivorous animals have been obliged to flee 

 and have thus acquired the habit of making very 

 rapid movements; thus have been formed the 

 types of gazelle, deer, and so forth. Such crude 

 illustrations certainly could not predispose his 

 contemporaries in favor of his theory. 



He was still less happy in his account of the 

 loss of the limbs of snakes :^ 



The serpents having taken up the habit of moving 

 along the earth and concealing themselves among 

 bushes, their bodies, owing to repeated efforts to elon- 

 gate themselves and to pass through narrow spaces, 

 have acquired a considerable length out of all pro- 

 portion to their width. Since long feet would have 

 been very useless, and short feet would have been in- 

 capable of moving their bodies, there resulted a cessa- 



^Loc. cit, I, pp. 244^5. 



