318 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



Buff on; that is, in holding to the production of 

 many modern species by modifications chiefly in 

 the nature of degeneration from older and more 

 perfect types. There is no evidence whatever that 

 he was an evolutionist in the large, comprehensive 

 sense of Lamarck. 



In 1859, upon the publication of the Origin of 

 Species, Owen took an unfortunate position of 

 hostility to the evidences for the natural causes 

 of Evolution which Darwin sought to establish, 

 and at the same time claimed that he had long 

 held a belief in transmutation. In the preface of 

 his Anatomy of Vertebrates, published in 1866, 

 we find the following statement : 



With every disposition to acquire information and 

 receive instruction, as to how species become such, I 

 am still compelled, as in 1849, to confess ignorance 

 of the mode of operation of the natural law or sec- 

 ondary cause of their succession on the earth. But 

 that it is an 'orderly succession,' or according to 

 law, and also 'progressive,' or in the ascending 

 course, is evident from actual knowledge of extinct 

 species. 



He then goes on to say that the basis of belief 

 in the succession and progression of species was 

 laid in three ways, namely, by the demonstration 

 of the unity of plan as shown in special and gen- 

 eral homologies (Vicq d'Azyr and St. Hilaire), 



