304: EVOLUTION Itf BIOLOGY. 



worthy of attentive study, but they fell upon evil times. 

 The vast authority of Cuvier was employed in support 

 of the traditionally respectable hypotheses of special cre- 

 ation and of catastrophism ; and the wild speculations 

 of the " Disco iirs sur les Ke volutions de la Surface du 

 Globe " were held to be models of sound scientific think- 

 ing, while the really much more sober and philosophical 

 hypotheses- of the " Hydrogeologie " were scouted. For 

 many years it was the fashion to speak of Lamarck with 

 ridicule, while Treviranus was altogether ignored. 



Nevertheless, the work had been done. The con- 

 ception of evolution was henceforward irrepressible, and 

 it incessantly reappears, in one shape or another,* up 

 to the year 1858, when Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace 

 published their "Theory of Natural Selection." The 

 " Origin of Species " appeared in 1859 ; and it is within 

 the knowledge of all whose memories go back to that 

 time, that, henceforward, the doctrine of evolution has 

 assumed a position and acquired an importance which it 

 never before possessed. In the " Origin of Species," and 

 in his other numerous and important contributions to the 

 solution of the problem of biological evolution, Mr. 

 Darwin confines himself to the discussion of the causes 

 which have brought about the present condition of living 

 matter, assuming such matter to have once come into 

 existence. On the other hand, Mr. Spencer f and Pro- 



* See the " Historical Sketch " prefixed to the last edition of the " Ori- 

 gin of Species." 



f "First Principles" and "Principles of Biology," 1860-1864. 



