Pre-Darwinian Theories of Evolution 11 
in this view, for even if environmentally induced “modifications” 
be not transmissible, environmentally induced “variations” are ; and 
even if the direct influence of the environment be less important 
than many enthusiastic supporters of this view—may we call them 
Buffonians—think, there remains the indirect influence which 
Darwinians in part rely on,—the eliminative process. Even if the 
extreme view be held that the only form of discriminate elimination 
that counts is inter-organismal competition, this might be included 
under the rubric of the animate environment. 
In many passages Buffon! definitely suggested that environ- 
mental influences—especially of climate and food—were directly 
productive of changes in organisms, but he did not discuss the 
question of the transmissibility of the modifications so induced, and 
it is difficult to gather from his inconsistent writings what extent 
of transformation he really believed in. Prof. Osborn says of Buffon: 
“The struggle for existence, the elimination of the least-perfected 
species, the contest between the fecundity of certain species and their 
constant destruction, are all clearly expressed in various passages.” 
He quotes two of these?: 
“Le cours ordinaire de la nature vivante, est en général toujours 
constant, toujours le méme ; son mouvement, toujours régulier, roule 
sur deux points inébranlables : l’un, la fécondité sans bornes donnée 
4 toutes les espéces ; l'autre, les obstacles sans nombre qui réduisent 
cette fécondité &4 une mesure déterminée et ne laissent en tout temps 
qu’a peu prés la méme quantité d’individus de chaque espéce”’...“Les 
espéces les moins parfaites, les plus délicates, les plus pesantes, les 
moins agissantes, les moins armées, etc., ont déja disparu ou dis- 
paraitront.” 
Erasmus Darwin® had a firm grip of the “idea of the gradual 
formation and improvement of the Animal world,’ and he had 
his theory of the process. No sentence is more characteristic 
than this: “All animals undergo transformations which are in part 
produced by their own exertions, in response to pleasures and pains, 
and many of these acquired forms or propensities are transmitted 
to their posterity.” This is Lamarckism before Lamarck, as his 
grandson pointed out. His central idea is that wants stimulate 
efforts and that these result in improvements, which subsequent 
generations make better still. He realised something of the struggle 
for existence and even pointed out that this advantageously checks 
the rapid multiplication. “As Dr Krause points out, Darwin just 
1 See in particular Samuel Butler, Evolution Old and New, London, 1879; J. L. de 
Lanessan, ‘‘Buffon et Darwin,” Revue Scientifique, xLut. pp. 3885—391, 425—.432, 1889. 
2 op. cit. p. 136. 
3 See Ernst Krause and Charles Darwin, Erasmus Darwin, London, 1879. 
