peesibent's address. 273 



Linne's celebrated contemporary, Buffon (1707-88), to whom the 

 world owes a great debt for being the first to really popularize 

 Natural History by his monumental work, Avas, according to Geoffroy 

 Saiut-Hilaire {25, pp. 383-96), the first to preach the variability of 

 species. At the same time, as the last-named writer shows, he has 

 been quoted by both parties in the old struggle over the question of 

 the fixity or non-fixity of species. In his earlier volumes on Animals 

 he constantly reiterates the statement that they are fixed, but later he 

 admits varieties, which he attributes to degeneration. (Cf. Osborn, 

 52, pp. 130-9 ; Kellogg, 44 p. 216.) 



The true key to Bulfon is, however, that indicated by Clodd (15, 

 p. 101). Students of Buffon have neglected to take into account his 

 envirounient. In his first volumes, and notably in his " Theorie de 

 la Terre," he gave expression to views which were not acceptable to 

 the theologians of the day, and these expressions of opinion the 

 Sorbonne, or Faculty of Theology in Paris, compelled him to retract 

 in 1751. Their list of his heresies, with his recantation of them, were 

 published in the forefront of the first volume on Animals (1//., tom. iv, 

 1753). In consequence of this submission, Buffon dared not proclaim 

 what he obviously felt to be the truth in the matter, and so, while 

 ostensibly supporting the fixity of species, he by repeatedly drawing 

 attention, almost ad nauseam, to the great similarity between related 

 forms, endeavours to lead his readers to the opposite conclusion. ISTo 

 one who carefully reads his chapters on the ass (llj., tom. iv, p. 377, 

 where a propos of its kinship to the horse he passes the whole question 

 in review), on the pig {lI^-, tom. v, 1755, p. 99), the dog {11^, tom. v, 

 p. 194), or the rat (i-4, tom. vii, 1758, p. 278) can fail to see that 

 his remarks are conceived in a spirit of irony. Perhaps the following- 

 quotation from the chapter on the goat [1%, tom. v, p. 59) will give 

 the best illustration of this : — " Quoique les especes dans les Animaux 

 soient toutes separees par un intervalle que la Nature ne peut franchir, 

 quelques-unes semblent se rapprocher par un si grand nombre de 

 rapports, qu'il ne reste, pour ainsi dire, entre elles que I'espace 

 necessaire pour tirer la ligne de separation." 



Geoffrey Saint- Hilaire, unfortunately, only quotes the first part of 

 the sentence, omitting of course the "quoique," thus spoiling the 

 effect of the whole, and he has been followed blindly by all subsequent 

 commentators. 



Lamarck (1744-1829), to whom tardy statuary honours are shortly 

 to be paid, at first followed in his teachings on the lines of his 

 master, Buffon, and this continued up to and including the time of 

 his " Becherches sur les causes des principaux faits physiques " (4^), 

 which was written in 1776 and presented to the Academy in 1780, but 

 not published till 1794. When, however, in 1802, his "Becherches 

 sur 1' organisation des corps vivants " (^6) appeared, his opinions were 

 seen to have undergone an apparent complete change, which culminated 

 in his " Philosopliie Zoologique " of 1809 (4:7). 



In response to Huxley's comment that "it would be interesting to 

 know what brought about the change of opinion " thus manifested 

 {33, p. 748J, note), Osborn suggests that it " was probably due to 



