292 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



while, an army officer. In the former capacity, he 

 was for a time with the expedition of Naudin. 

 Quatrefages has given the following sketch of 

 his views : 



In several papers, but especially in the article 

 * Creation' of the Dictionnaire Classique de VHis- 

 toire Naturelle, of which he was the editor, he 

 developed, in more than one point, the doctrines 

 of Buff on and of Lamarck, and drew from them 

 conclusions which belonged to himself. 



Bory, inclining toward Buffon's theory that 

 new or modified species should be found in new 

 worlds, postulates the spontaneous daily forma- 

 tion of new species, not, it is true, upon our con- 

 tinents, which have for a long time been peo- 

 pled with both animals and plants, but only in 

 countries considered by him less ancient in for- 

 mation. He cites, for example, the island of 

 Madagascar, which he believes to have only re- 

 cently issued from the sea, under the influence of 

 volcanic forces. According to him, this island 

 contains more "polymorphic species than all the 

 terra fir ma of the Old World." On this relatively 

 modern soil he says species are not yet fixed. 

 Nature, in hastening to constitute the types, 

 seems to have neglected to regulate the acces- 

 sory organs. On the other hand, in the continents 

 more anciently formed, the development of 

 plants has, perforce, followed an identical route 



