101 



and the theory of the invariability of species. 

 This controversy became noised throughout 

 the scientific world. Goethe, then eighty-one 

 years old, took a keen interest in it and de- 

 voted his last work, completed in 1832, to a 

 review of the debate, pointing out its great 

 scientific and philosophic import. Yet the out- 

 come of this far-famed contest was not favor- 

 able to the new ideas. In the opinion of the 

 majority, the victory remained on the side of 

 Cuvier, and the doctrine of transmutation lost 

 ground. 



The general theory advanced by Lamarck 

 contained much of significance and impor- 

 tance, and was in part accepted by Darwin. In 

 recent years it has been revived, at least in 

 certain particulars, by those who class them- 

 selves as Neo-Lamarckians. Lamarck was much 

 impressed by what he believed to be the direct 

 effects of the environment upon organisms, 

 particularly plants, and he attributed evolution 

 in the main to changes in this factor. His idea 

 of the way in which animals had been trans- 

 formed was through what might be called the 

 indirect rather than the direct influence of the 

 environment and may be briefly stated as fol- 

 lows : changes in an animal's surroundings in* 



