148 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION 



' The bird, whose needs attract it to the water in 

 order to seek its food therein, spreads its toes apart 

 when it desires to strike the water and swim upon its 

 surface. The skin which unites the toes at their base 

 acquires, by this unceasingly repeated extension of the 

 toes, the habit of spreading itself out. Therefore in 

 time the broad swimming webs arise which at present 

 connect the toes of Ducks, Geese, etc. These efforts 

 to swim i.e. to strike the water in order to progress 

 in this liquid and move therein have also broadened 

 the toes of the Frog, the Sea Tortoise, the Fish Otter, 

 the Beaver, etc/ L Lamarck thus attributes the 

 purposefulness of the organisms to their striving 

 towards the purpose concerned ! His doctrine is a 

 fiDal (finalistisch) one. 



Everything that the animals newly acquire in this 

 manner is, according to Lamarck, inherited by the 

 offspring and thus becomes ever more and more fixed. 



(ii) Criticism. (a) We accept much of what Lamarck 

 says, but not always for his reasons. If the cata- 

 strophic theory be denied, as in itself an improbable 

 idea, then we must also reject the unchangeability of 

 species. In our Introduction we have entered into 

 details regarding this. 



It is also correct that the organisms must alter 

 themselves if an adaptation to changed environments 

 generally be effected. (In contradiction to Darwin, 



1 Geschichte des Lamarckismus, p. 35. Many other similar examples are 

 given. The most remarkable and most popularly known examples, which 

 Wagner does not mention, are those of the Kangaroo and Giraffe. Philos. 

 Zool., chap. vii. : Influence des circonstances sur les actions des animaux. 



