FROM LAMARCK TO ST. HILAIRE 291 



tion, although a strong advocate of it. His ideas 

 upon descent are much less clear and accurate 

 than those of Lamarck ; and in his views of the 

 spontaneous origin of some of the higher forms 

 of life, as shown in the sentences last quoted, he 

 is very far afield. Haeckel is mistaken when he 

 states that Treviranus refers to the lowest or- 

 ganisms in the term 'zoophytes,' for Treviranus 

 couples with this term such complex forms as 

 crinoids and ammonites. As to the factors of 

 Evolution, he does not advance beyond Buifon, 

 and in his general conception he virtually takes 

 the position held much earlier by Goethe, for he 

 thus summarizes his views: 



In every living being there exists the capability of 

 an endless variety of form-assumption ; each possesses 

 the power to adapt its organization to the changes 

 of the outer world, and it is this power, put into ac- 

 tion by the change of the universe, that has raised 

 the simple zoophytes of the primitive world to con- 

 tinually higher stages of organization, and has in- 

 troduced a countless variety of species into animate 

 Nature. 



BoRY DE St. Vincent (1780-1846) 



Bory de St. Vincent would seem to have been 

 the only loyal successor in 1 nee of Lamarck, 

 of whom he was thirty-six yeai the junior. Like 

 his leader, he was both a natU ilist, and, for a 



