RISE OF EVOLUTIONARY THOUGHT 417 
case. He pointed triumphantly to the four branches of the 
animal kingdom which he had established, maintaining that 
these four branches represented four distinct types of organi- 
zation; and, furthermore, that fixity of species and fixity of 
type were necessary for the existence of a scientific natural 
history. We can see now that his contention was wrong, 
but at the time he won the debate. The young men of 
the period, that is, the rising biologists of France, were 
nearly all adherents of Cuvier, so that the effect of the de- 
bate was, as previously stated, to retard the progress of sci- 
ence. This noteworthy debate occurred in February, 1830. 
The wide and lively interest with which the debate was 
followed may be inferred from the excitement manifested 
by Goethe. Of the great poet-naturalist, who was then in 
his eighty-first year, the following incident is told by Soret: 
“Monday, Aug. 2d, 1830.—The news of the outbreak of 
the revolution of July arrived in Weimar to-day, and has 
caused general excitement. In the course of the afternoon 
I went to Goethe. ‘Well,’ he exclaimed as I entered, ‘ what 
do you think of this great event? The volcano has burst 
forth, all is in flames, and there are no more negotiations 
behind closed doors.’ ‘A dreadful affair,’ I answered; 
‘but what else could be expected under the circumstances, 
and with such a ministry, except that it would end in the 
expulsion of the present royal family?’ ‘We do not seem 
to understand each other, my dear friend,’ replied Goethe. 
‘I am not speaking of those people at all; I am interested 
in something very different. I mean the dispute between 
Cuvier and Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire, which has broken out 
in the Academy, and which is of such great importance to 
science.’ This remark of Goethe came upon me so unex- 
pectedly that I did not know what to say, and my thoughts 
for some minutes seemed to have come to a complete stand- 
still. ‘The affair is of the utmost importance,’ he con- 
27 
