HISTORY OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION 5 



and domestic cat are all species of one genus, 

 differing in points of structure, size, and habits. 

 Again, the pine, fir, and larch are all species of the 

 genus Finns. 



The idea of a species is therefore one separated 

 by distinctive characters, which are constant and 

 reproduced in the offspring. Jackdaws do not lay- 

 eggs from which crows are hatched, nor do cats give 

 birth to lions. Linnaeus' idea of species was that 

 they always had been distinct ; that at the original 

 stocking of the earth one pair of each kind or 

 species was created, and that the existing species 

 of animals and plants are the direct descend- 

 ants of these original inhabitants. The initial 

 objection to this view is that, if there were only one 

 pair of each species to start with, they would imme- 

 diately have eaten one another up, or have them- 

 selves died ; herbivorous animals devouring plants, 

 and being devoured in their turn by carnivorous 

 animals. Linnaeus does not seem to have troubled 

 himself much with the problem, and appears to have 

 adopted the current views of the day without 

 inquiry. The case was, however, different with 

 some of his contemporaries. 



Buffon, 1 707-1 788, was a contemporary of Lin- 

 naeus, but a man of very different stamp. He came of 

 a wealthy family, and enjoyed the best education that 

 France could give him. At the age of twenty-one he 

 succeeded to a handsome property, at the very time 

 when Linnaeus, with an allowance of £& a year from 

 his father, was a struggling student at the University 

 of Upsala, putting folded paper into the soles of his 



