NEOLAMARCKISM 



391 



(1873) we adopted the Lamarckian factors of change 

 of habits and environment, of use and disuse, to ac- 

 count for the origin of the appendages, while we 

 attributed the origin of the metamorphoses of in- 

 sects to change of habits or of the temperature of 

 the seasons and of climates, particularly the change 

 in the earth's climates from the earlier ages of the 

 globe, " when the temperature of the earth was 

 nearly the same the world over, to the times of the 

 present distribution of heat and cold in zones." 



From further studies on cave animals, published 

 in 1877,* we wrote as follows: 



" In the production of these cave species, the ex- 

 ceptional phenomena of darkness, want of sufificient 

 food, and unvarying temperature, have been plainly 

 enough vera causce. To say that the principle of 

 natural selection accounts for the change of struc- 

 ture is no explanation of the phenomena; the phrase 

 has to the mind of the writer no meaning in connec- 

 tion with the production of these cave forms, and 

 has as little meaning in accounting for the origina- 

 tion of species and genera in general. Darwin's 

 phrase ' natural selection,' or Herbert Spencer's 

 term ' survival of the fittest,' expresses simply the 

 final result, while the process of the origination of 

 the new forms which have survived, or been selected 

 by nature, is to be explained by the action of the 

 physical environments of the animals coupled with 

 inheritance-force. It has always appeared to the 

 writer that the phrases quoted above have been mis- 

 used to state the cause, when they simply express 

 the result of the action of a chain of causes which 

 we may, with Herbert Spencer, call the ' environ- 



* "A New Cave Fauna in Utah." Bulletin of the United States 

 Geological Survey, iii., April 9, 1877, p. 167. 



