I4 EVOLUTION OF LIFE. 
De Maillet, the first attempt in modern times to bring 
together the evidence in favor of the Evolution of 13 
with the causes sufficient to produce it, is to be found in 
the writings of Lamarck,—the Philosophical Zoology (1809), 
and the History of Animals without Vertebrae (1815). 
Lamarck was Professor of Zoology at the Garden of Plants, 
in Paris, and, far from being a mere dreamer, was an emi- 
nent naturalist, as every one admits, whatever may be 
thought of his speculations. Many of these speculations, 
however, are regarded by distinguished living Biologists 
as profound truths, such as, that “there is no distinct vital 
principle,” that “life is only a physical phenomenon," that 
" the nervous system produces ideas, and all the acts of the 
intelligence," et 
9 
In the works just alluded to, Lamarck, basing his views 
on the structure of plants and animals, and their petrified 
remains, develops the theory of there having been a pro- 
gress in the organic world from the simpler forms of life 
to the higher; that all organisms in the lapse of ages had 
descended from pre-existing ones. As causes of the trans- 
mutation of species, Lamarck held that the force of the 
l, as exhibited in the use and disuse of organs, exercised 
great influence in modifying the structure of animals; he 
— 
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attached also great importance to the facts of inheritance. 
While it is admitted that there is a great deal in the writings 
of Lamarck that cannot be maintained, still, he must be 
considered as the first who attempted to develop in detail 
the theory of the Evolution of Life, and one of its most 
distinguished advocates. Noticing that Lamarck held that 
the Monkey descent of Man, previously advocated by Mon- 
boddo, was a necessary consequence of his theory, we pass 
on to Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, the distinguished and constant 
opponent of Cuvier in the discussions on the Origin of 
Species at the Garden of Plants. Although for a long time 
St.-Hilaire had thought as Lamarck, it was not till 1828 
