FROM LAMARCK TO ST. HILAIRE 251 



strongest objections which Lamarck had to meet 

 — one which shows that his theory of transmuta- 

 tion excited a lively discussion at the time, as 

 Darwinism did afterward — was the persistency 

 of certain lower types. When Geoffroy St. 

 Hilaire brought back his rich collections of mum- 

 mied cats and other animals from the tombs of 

 Egypt, and it was found that these were identi- 

 cal with the actual living representatives of the 

 same species and that these species had existed 

 without variation between two and three thou- 

 sand years, it was considered very strong evi- 

 dence against the transmutation theory. La- 

 marck replied that in Egypt there had been sub- 

 stantially no change of environment, that both 

 the soil and the climate had remained the same 

 during that great period ; such being the case, no 

 new habits had been imposed upon animals, and 

 the persistence of their characters was therefore 

 readily explained. 



It is also noteworthy that Lamarck, adopting 

 for animals the indirect action of environment on 

 habit, adopted for plants a theory of the direct 

 action of environment, in the absence of any ner- 

 vous system whereby these organisms could re- 

 spond to external stimuli. He thus coincided with 

 Buffon in regard to plant evolution. He cites 

 numerous instances of rapid modification by 

 drought, by change of habitat, by cultivation, 



