LAMARCK'S THEORY OF DESCENT 281 



gression in organization of animals from the simplest 

 to man, as also to the successive acquisition of different 

 special organs, and consequently of as many faculties 

 as new organs obtained, he remarks : 



" Then we can perceive how needs {besoins), at the 

 outset reduced to nullity, and of which the number 

 gradually increases, have produced the inclination 

 {penchant) to actions fitted to satisfy it ; how the ac- 

 tions, becoming habitual and energetic, have caused 

 the development of the organs which execute them ; 

 how the force which excites the organic movements 

 may, in the simplest animals, be outside of them and 

 yet animate them ; how, then, this force has teen 

 transported and fixed in the animal itself ; finally, 

 how it then has become the source of sensibility, 

 and in the end that of acts of intelligence. 



" I shall add that if this method had been followed, 

 then sensation would not have been regarded as 

 the general and immediate cause of organic move- 

 ments, and it would not have been said that life is a 

 series of movements which are executed in virtue of 

 sensations received by different organs ; or, in other 

 words, that all the vital movements are the product 

 of impressions received by the sensitive parts. * 



" This cause seems, up to a certain point, established 

 as regards the most perfect animals ; but had it been 

 so relatively to all living beings, they should all be 

 endowed with the power of sensation. But it cannot 

 be proved that this is the case with plants, and it 

 cannot likewise be proved that it is so with all the 

 animals known. 



" But nature in creating her organisms has not be- 

 gun by suddenly establishing a faculty so eminent 



* [Cabanis.] Raff, du Phys. et du Moral de V Homme, pp. 38 4 

 39. et 85. 



