HI8T0BICAL SKETCH. vii 



was not until 1838 that he published his conviction that 

 the same forms have not been perpetuated since the origin 

 of all things. GeofEroy seems to have relied chiefly on the 

 conditions of life, or the ''monde amhiant" as the cause of 

 change. He was cautious in drawing conclusions, and did 

 not believe that existing species are now undergoing modi- 

 fication; and, as his son adds, "O'est done un probleme a 

 reserver enti^rement k I'avenir, suppose m^me que I'avenir 

 doive avoir prise sur lui." 



In 1813 Dr. W. C. Wells read before the Eoyal Society 

 " An Account of a White Female, part of whose skin 

 resembles that of a Negro ; " but his paper was not pub- 

 lished until his famous " Two Essays upon Dew and Single 

 Vision" appeared in 1818. In this paper he distinctly 

 recognizes the principle of natural selection, and this is the 

 first recognition which has been indicated; but he applies 

 it only to the races of man, and to certain characters alone. 

 After remarking that negroes and mulattoes enjoy an im- 

 munity from certain tropical diseases, he observes, firstly, 

 that all animals tend to vary in some degree, and, secondly, 

 that agriculturists improve their domesticated amimals by 

 selection; and then, he adds, but what is done in this 

 latter case " by art, seems to be done with equal efficacy, 

 though more slowly, by nature, in the formation of varie- 

 ties of mankind, fitted for the country which they inhabit. 

 Of the accidental varieties of man, which would occur 

 among the first few and scattered inhabitants of the middle 

 regions of Africa, some one would be better fitted than 

 others to bear the diseases of the country. This race 

 would consequently multiply, while the others would 

 decrease; not only from their inability to sustain the 

 attacks of disease, but from their incapacity of contending 

 with their more vigorous neighbors. The color of this 

 vigorous race I take for granted, from what has been 



written in 1794 and 1795, but not published till long afterward: he 

 has pointedly remarked (" Goethe als Naturforscher," von Dr. Karl 

 Meding, s. 34') that the future question for naturalists will be how, for 

 instance, cattle got their horns and not for what they are used. It is 

 rather a singular instance of the manner in which similar views arise 

 at about the same time, that Goethe in Germany, Dr. Darwin in Eng- 

 land, and GeofEroy Saint-Hilaire (as we shall immediately see) in 

 France, came to the same conclusion on the origin of species, in the 

 years 1794r-5. 



