PROFESSOR LANKESTER AND LAMARCK. 271 



how large a share social influences have in deciding 

 what kind of reception a book or theory is to meet 

 with ; true, these influences are not permanent, but at 

 first they are almost irresistible ; in reality it was not 

 the theory of descent that was matched against that 

 of fixity, but Lamarck against Cuvier ; who can be 

 surprised that Ouvier for a time should have had the 

 best of it ? 



And yet it is pleasant to reflect that his triumph 

 was not, as triumphs go, long lived. How is Ouvier 

 best known now ? As one who missed a great oppor- 

 tunity; as one who was great in small things, and 

 stubbornly small in great ones. Lamarck died in, 

 1831; in 1861 descent with modification was almost 

 universally accepted by those most competent to form 

 an opinion. This result was by no means so exclu- 

 sively due to Mr. Darwin's " Origin of Species " as 

 is commonly believed. During the thirty years that 

 followed 1 8 3 1 Lamarck's opinions made more way 

 than Darwinians are willing to allow. Granted that 

 in 1 86 1 the theory was generally accepted under the 

 name of Darwin, not under that of Lamarck, still it 

 was Lamarck and not Darwin that was being accepted ; 

 it was descent, not descent with modification by means of 

 natural selection from among fortuitous variations, that 

 we carried away with us from the " Origin of Species." 

 The thing triumphed whether the name was lost or not. 

 I need not waste the reader's time by showing further 

 how little weight he need attach to the fact that 

 Lamarckism was not immediately received with open 

 arms by an admiring public. The theory of descent 



