COX ON THE FOUNDER OF THE EVOLUTION THEORY 237 
I am inclined to think that at first Darwin was much more of a Lamarck¬ 
ian than he himself realized and that he became less and less like Lamarck 
as years passed on. It is likely that he derived most of his knowledge of 
Lamarck from the two chapters devoted to him in the first edition of Lyell’s 
“Principles of Geology,”—a book which made a greater impression upon 
him than was ever made by any other work,— and he admits, in his autobiog¬ 
raphy, that the hearing rather early in life the views of his grandfather, as set 
forth in the “ Zoonomia,” which were similar to the ideas afterwards advo¬ 
cated by Lamarck, may have favored his upholding them under a different 
form in his “Origin of Species.” As an amusing example of such Lamarck¬ 
ian ideas, we may take the “wretched polar-bear case,” as Darwin after¬ 
wards called it, which he dropped, rather unwillingly, from the second 
edition of “The Origin” upon the advice of Lyell. It was given in the 
first edition in the following words: 
In North America the black bear was seen by Hearne swimming for hours with 
widely open mouth, thus catching, like a whale, insects in the water. Even in so 
extreme a case as this, if the supply of insects were constant, and if better adapted 
competitors did not already exist in the country, I can see no difficulty in a race of 
bears being rendered, by natural selection, more and more aquatic in their struc¬ 
ture and habits with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as mon¬ 
strous as a whale. 1 
The omission of this illustration was urged by Lyell not so much because 
he thought it too Lamarckian as because he doubted the truth of the state¬ 
ment made by Hearne, and it is probable that Darwin himself did not perceive 
how Lamarckian his presentation of the case was. But notwithstanding his 
reference to natural selection as the cause of the supposed modification of 
the bear, it is hard to see wherein this example is essentially less Lamarckian 
than the familiar one of the giraffe lengthening its neck through its efforts to 
reach the tops of trees, or the following example cited by Lamarck in his 
“Systeme des Animaux sans Vertebres”: 
The shore bird, which does not care to swim, but which, however, is obliged to 
approach the water to obtain its prey, will be continually in danger of sinking in the 
mud, but wishing to act so that its body shall not fall into the liquid, it will contract 
the habit of extending and lengthening its feet. Hence it will result in the genera¬ 
tions of these birds which continue to live in this manner, that the individuals will 
find themselves raised as if on stilts, on long naked feet; namely, denuded of feathers 
up to and often above the thighs. 2 
In all three of the cases cited, namely, of the bear, the giraffe and the 
bird, it at once occurs to us to inquire as to the condition of the animal before 
1 “Origin of Species,’’ 1st. ed„ p. 1S4. 1859. 
2 A. S. Packard, “ Lamarck the Founder of Evolution,” p. 234. 1901. 
