50 



FACTS AND FANCIES 



philosophical minds of antiquity, were revived. 

 In France more particularly, the theories of Buf- 

 fon, Lamarck, and Geoffroy St. Hilaire opened 

 up these exciting themes, and they might even 

 then have attained to the importance they have 

 since acquired but for the great and judicial 

 intellect of Cuvier, which perceived their futil- 

 ity and guided the researches of naturalists 

 into other and more profitable fields. The 

 next stimulus to such hypotheses was given 

 by the progress of physiology, and especially 

 by researches into the embryonic development 

 of animals and plants. Here it was seen that 

 there are homologies and likenesses of plan 

 linking organisms with each other, and that in 

 the course of their development the more com- 

 plex creatures pass through stages correspond- 

 ing to the adult condition of lower forms. The 

 questions raised by the geographical distribu- 

 tion of animals, as ascertained by the numerous 

 expeditions and scientific travellers of modern 

 times, tended in the same direction. The way 

 was thus prepared for the broad generalizations 

 of Darwin, who, seizing on the idea of artificial 

 selection as practised by breeders of animals 

 and plants, and imagining that something sim- 

 ilar takes place in the natural struggle for 



