72 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



grounds. And though he is evidently alarmed at the 

 pithecoid origin of man involved in Lamarck's doc- 

 trine, he observes : " But, after all, what changes 

 species may really undergo ! How impossible will it 

 be to distinguish and lay down a line beyond which 

 some of the so-called extinct species have never 

 passed into recent ones ? " 



He also quotes a remarkable passage in the post- 

 script to a letter written to Sir John Herschel in 

 1836: "In regard to the origination of new species, 

 I am very glad to find that you think it probable it 

 may be carried on through the intervention of inter- 

 mediate causes." 



How nearly Lyell was made a convert to evolution 

 by reading Lamarck's works may be seen by the fol- 

 lowing extracts from his letters, quoted by Huxley: 



" I think the old ' creation ' is almost as much re- 

 quired as ever, but of course it takes a new form if 

 Lamarck's views, improved by yours, are adopted." 

 (To Darwin, March 11, 1863, p. 363.) 



" As to Lamarck, I find that Grove, who has been 

 reading him, is wonderfully struck with his book. I 

 remember that it was the conclusion he (Lamarck) 

 came to about man, that fortified me thirty years ago 

 against the great impression which his argument at 

 first made on my mind — all the greater because Con- 

 stant Prevost, a pupil of Cuvier forty years ago, told 

 me his conviction ' that Cuvier thought species not 

 real, but that science could not advance without as- 

 suming that they were so.' " 



" When I came to the conclusion that after all La- 

 marck was going to be shown to be right, that we 

 must ' go the whole orang,' I re-read his book, and 



