86 Heredity and Variation in Modern Lights 
tion ; Heredity ; Natural Selection. His work was not as the laity 
suppose, a sudden and unheralded revelation, but the first fruit of a 
long and hitherto barren controversy. The occurrence of variation 
from type, and the hereditary transmission of such variation had of 
course been long familiar to practical men, and inferences as to the 
possible bearing of those phenomena on the nature of specific 
difference had been from time to time drawn by naturalists. Mau- 
pertuis, for example, wrote : “Ce qui nous reste & examiner, c'est 
comment d’un seul individu, il a pu naitre tant d’esptces si différentes.” 
And again: “La Nature contient le fonds de toutes ces variétés : 
mais le hasard ou Vart les mettent en ceuvre. Cvest ainsi que ceux 
dont l'industrie s’applique a satisfaire le gott des curieux, sont, pour 
ainsi dire, créateurs d’espéces nouvelles*.” 
Such passages, of which many (though few so emphatic) can be 
found in eighteenth century writers, indicate a true perception of the 
mode of Evolution. The speculations hinted at by Buffon’, developed 
by Erasmus Darwin, and independently proclaimed above all by 
Lamarck, gave to the doctrine of descent a wide renown. The uni- 
formitarian teaching which Lyell deduced from geological observation 
had gained acceptance. The facts of geographical distribution? had 
been shown to be obviously inconsistent with the Mosaic legend. 
Prichard, and Lawrence, following the example of Blumenbach, had 
successfully demonstrated that the races of Man could be regarded 
as different forms of one species, contrary to the opinion up till then 
received. These treatises all begin, it is true, with a profound 
obeisance to the sons of Noah, but that performed, they continue on 
strictly modern lines. The question of the mutability of species was 
thus prominently raised. 
Those who rate Lamarck no higher than did Huxley in his con- 
temptuous phrase “buccinator tantum,” will scarcely deny that the 
sound of the trumpet had carried far, or that its note was clear. If 
then there were few who had already turned to evolution with 
positive conviction, all scientific men must at least have known that 
1 Vénus Physique, contenant deux Dissertations, Vune sur Vorigine des Hommes et des 
Animaus : Et Vautre sur Vorigine des Noirs, La Haye, 1746, pp. 124 and 129. For an 
introduction to the writings of Maupertuis I am indebted to an article by Professof 
Lovejoy in Popular Sci. Monthly, 1902. 
2 For the fullest account of the views of these pioneers of Evolution, see the works of 
Samuel Butler, especially Evolution, Old and New (2nd edit.) 1882, Butler's claims on 
behalf of Buffon have met with some acceptance; but after reading what Butler has said, 
and a considerable part of Buffon’s own works, the word ‘‘hinted” seems to me 
sufficiently correct description of the part he played. It is interesting to note that in 
the chapter on the Ass, which contains some of his evolutionary passages, there is & 
reference to ‘‘plusieurs idées trés-élevées sur la génération” contained in the Letters of 
Maupertuis. 
3 See especially W. Lawrence, Lectures on Physiology, London, 1823, pp. 218 f. 
