CHAPTER XVIIl 



LAMARCK'S THEORY AS TO THE EVOLUTION OF 



MAN 



Lamarck's views on the origin of man are con- 

 tained in his Recherches sur l' Organisation des Corps 

 vivans (1802) and his Philosophie zoologique, pub- 

 lished in 1809. We give the following literal trans- 

 lation in full of the views he presented in 1802, and 

 which were probably first advanced in lectures to his 

 classes. 



" As to man, his origin, his peculiar nature, I have 

 already stated in this book that I have not kept 

 these subjects in view in making these observations. 

 His extreme superiority over the other living crea- 

 tures indicates that he is a privileged being who has 

 in common with the animals only that which con- 

 cerns animal life. 



In truth, we observe a sort of gradation in the 

 intelligence of animals, like what exists in the grad- 

 ual improvement of their organization, and we re- 

 mark that they have ideas, memory ; that they think, 

 choose, love, hate, that they are susceptible of jeal- 

 ousy, and that by different inflexions of their voice 

 and by signs they communicate with and understand 

 each other. It is not less evident that man alone is 

 endowed with reason, and that on this account he is 

 clearly distinguished from all the other productions 

 of nature. 



