230 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



bearing on the stability of species, and though hi& 

 work is largely a repetition of the Recherches, the 

 author omits the passages quoted above. Was this 

 period of six years, between 1794 and 1800, given to 

 a reconsideration of the subject resulting in favor of 

 the doctrine of descent ? 



Huxley quotes these passages, and then in a foot- 

 note (p. 211), after stating that Lamarck's Recherches 

 was not published before 1794, and stating that at 

 that time it presumably expressed Lamarck's mature 

 views, adds : " It would be interesting to know what 

 brought about the change of opinion manifested in 

 the Recherches sur l' Organisation des Corps vivans, 

 published only seven years later." 



In the appendix to this book (1802) he thus refers 

 to his change of views : " I have for a long time 

 thought that species were constant in nature, and that 

 they were constituted by the individuals which belong 

 to each of them. I am now convinced that I was in 

 error in this respect, and that in reality only in- 

 dividuals exist in nature" (p. 141). " 



Some clew in answer to the question as to when 

 Lamarck changed his views is afforded by an almost 

 casual statement by Lamarck in the addition entitled 

 Sur les Fossiles to his Systhne des Animaux sans 

 Vertibres (1801), where, after speaking of fossils as 

 extremely valuable monuments for the study of the 

 revolutions the earth has passed through at different 

 regions on its surface, and of the changes living 

 beings have there themselves successively undergone, 

 he adds in parenth,esis: "Dans mes legons j' ai touj'ours 

 insiste sur ces considerations." Are we to infer from 



