VIEWS OF ERASMUS DAS WIN 



223 



the animal originally created, and that these in- 

 finitely minute forms are only evolved or distended 

 as the embryon increases in the womb. This idea, 

 besides being unsupported by any analogy we are 

 acquainted with, ascribes a greater tenuity to organ- 

 ized matter than we can readily admit " (p. 317) ; and 

 in another place he claims that " we cannot but be 

 convinced that the fetus or embryon is formed by 

 apposition of new parts, and not by the distention 

 of a primordial nest of germs included one within 

 another like the cups of a conjurer" (p. 235). 



9. To explain instinct he suggests that the young 

 simply imitate the acts or example of their parents. 

 He says that wild birds choose spring as their building 

 time " from the acquired knowledge that the mild 

 temperature of the air is more convenient for hatch- 

 ing their eggs ; " and further on, referring to the fact 

 that seed-eating animals generally produce their 

 young in spring, he suggests that it is " part of the 

 traditional knowledge which they learn from the 

 example of their parents." * 



10. Hybridity. He refers in a cursory way to the 

 changes produced by the mixture of species, as in 

 mules. 



Of these ten factors or principles, and other views 

 of Dr. Darwin, some are similar to those of Lamarck, 

 while others are directly opposed. There are there- 

 fore no good grounds for supposing that Lamarck 

 was indebted to Darwin for his views. Thus Erasmus 

 Darwin supposes that the formation of organs pre- 

 cedes their use. As he says, Vl The lungs must be 



* Zoonomia, vol. i., p. 170. 



