314 THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 



gained a true insight into the structure of animals, as determined 

 by law, is testified by his Introduction to Comparative Anatomy. 

 He finds no other means of harmonizing the dry details of descrip- 

 tive anatomy, and the morphology which vaguely hovered before 

 him, but by indicating the idea of a primitive type for animals, 

 which he is, however, unable to define or to render in any way 

 palpable by more general indications. His whole idiosyncrasy 

 made such a type a necessity to him, not scientifically, but sstheti- 

 cally," etc. P. 590. 



°° R. Owen has declared his attitude towards the doctrine of 

 descent in the concluding chapter of his " Manuad of the Com- 

 parative Anatomy of the Vertebrata." It is published sepa- 

 rately under the title of " Derivative Hypothesis of Life and 

 Species," 1868. 



"lb "such cause being the servant of predetermining 



intelligent will." 



" " No one can enter the saddling-ground at Epsom before the 

 start for the Derby, without feeling that the glossy-coated, proudly- 

 stepping creatures led out before him are the most perfect and 

 beautiful of quadrupeds. As such, I believe the horse to have 

 been predestined and prepared for man." lb. P. 11. 



" " I deem an innate tendency to deviate from parental type, 

 operating through periods of adequate duration, to be the most 

 probable nature or way of operation of the secondary law whereby 

 species have been derived one from the other." lb. P. 22. 



" Lamarck, Philosophie Zoologpque (Paris, 1809). In the text 

 allusion is made to the following passages : 



" Ainsi Ton peut assurer que, parmi ses productions, la nature n'a 

 r^ellement forme ni classes, ni ordres, ni families, ni espdces con- 

 stantes, mais seulement des individus qui se succWent les uns aux 

 autres, et qui ressemblent k ceux qui les ont produits. Or ces 

 individus appartiennent i des races infiniment diversifiees, qui 

 se nuancent sous toutes les formes et dans tous les degr^s 

 d'organisation, et qui chacune se conservent sans mutation tant 

 qu'aucune cause de changement n'agit sur elles." I. 22. 



" La supposition presque g^n^ralment admise, que les corps 

 vivans constituent des espSces constamment distinctes par des 



