NEOLAMARCKISM 383 



resentative men more or less endorsed Darwin's 

 views, or at least some form of evolution, and owing 

 largely to their efforts in scientific circles and in the 

 popular press, the doctrine of descent rapidly per- 

 meated every avenue of thought and became gen- 

 erally accepted. 



Meanwhile, the general doctrine of evolution thus 

 proved, and the "survival of the fittest" an accom- 

 plished fact, the next step was to ascertain " how," 

 as Cope asked, "the fittest originated?" It was felt 

 by some that natural selection alone was not ade- 

 quate to explain the first steps in the origin of 

 genera, families, orders, classes, and branches or 

 phyla. It was perceived by some that natural selec- 

 tion by itself was not a vera causa, an efficient agent, 

 but was passive, and rather expressed the results of 

 the operations of a series of factors. The transform- 

 ing .should naturally precede the action of the selec- 

 tive agencies. 



We were, then, in our quest for the factors of or- 

 ganic evolution, obliged to fall back on the action of 

 the physico-chemical forces such as light, or its ab- 

 sence, heat, cold, change of climate ; and the physio- 

 logical agencies of food, or in other words on changes 

 in the physical environment, as well as in the biologi- ' 

 cal environment. Lamarck was the first one who, 

 owing to his many years' training in systematic botany 

 and zoology, and his philosophic breadth, had stated 

 more fully and authoritatively than any one else the 

 results of changes in the action of the primary factors 

 of evolution. Hence a return on the part of many 

 in Europe, and especially in America, to Lamarckism 



