MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 35 



date to convince us of our mistake. If we observe 

 that the forms of the parts of animals are always 

 perfect when viewed in relation to their use, as is 

 really the case, it is not to be inferred that it is the 

 form of the parts which has led them to be employed 

 in a certain way, as zoologists assert, but that it is, 

 on the contrary, the need of action which has pro- 

 duced the peculiar parts, and it is the employment 

 of these parts which has developed them, and esta- 

 blished a proper relation between them and their 

 functions. To affirm that the form of the parts in- 

 duced their functions, would be to leave Nature 

 without power, incapable of producing any act, or 

 any change in bodies; and the different parts of 

 animals, as well as the animals themselves, as all 

 created at first, would from that moment present as 

 many forms as are required by the diversity of cir- 

 cumstances in which animals live ; and it would be 

 necessary that these circumstances should never 

 vary, and that such should likewise be the case with 

 the parts of each animal. Nothing, however, of this 

 kind takes place, and nothing can be more opposite 

 to the means which observation shows us that 

 Nature employs to call into existence her manifold 

 productions. It must hence appear, that what are 

 called species do not exist in nature ; that the con- 

 stancy of races to which that name has been given, 

 can only be temporary and not absolute, although 

 they would no doubt continue the same as long as 

 the circumstances which effect them undergo no 

 change, and they are not forced to alter their ha- 



