FROM LAMARCK TO ST. HILAIRE 295 



At the conclusion of his review of the history 

 of opinion upon transmutation in France, he 

 gives it as his own opinion that characters are 

 neither actually fixed nor variable, both depend- 

 ing upon the fixity or the variability of environ- 

 ment. New characters are the resultant of two 

 forces: first, the modifying influence of new sur- 

 roundings; second, the conserving influence of 

 heredity. When the former predominates, varia- 

 tions result, such as are seen among primitive 

 peoples and in the domestication of animals. 

 These variations among wild animals extend to 

 modifications of color and external characters, 

 but in domestication the differences are much 

 more marked. So much for changes going on at 

 the present time. As to past time, the 'theory of 

 limited variability' links itself with that of *filia- 

 tion,' or descent from analogous forms, as op- 

 posed to the 'successive creations' of Cuvier's 

 school or of migration of existing species from 

 other quarters of the globe. He concludes by 

 saying, very guardedly, that this acceptance of 

 the transmutation theory rests upon the actual 

 very limited state of evidence. 



It is another striking coincidence that in the 

 very period (1854-62) in which this despairing 



teenth century; it includes a full exposition of the philosophis 

 anatomique of the school of Geoffroy St. Hilaire and Schelling. 

 Published only five years before the Origin of Species, it con- 

 tains no mention of the evolution concept. 



