1 82 Unconscious Memory 



" The hypothesis of Lamarck — that progressive changes 

 in species have been produced by the attempts of animals 

 to increase the development of their own organs, and thus 

 modify their structure and habits — has been repeatedly 

 and easily refuted by all writers on the subject of varieties 

 and species, . . . but the view here developed renders such 

 an hypothesis quite unnecessary. . . . The powerful re- 

 tractile talons of the falcon and the cat tribes have not been 

 produced or increased by the volition of those animals, 

 . . . neither did the giraffe acquire its long neck by desiring 

 to reach the foliage of the more lofty shrubs, and constantly 

 stretching its neck for this purpose, but because any varieties 

 which occurred among its antitypes with a longer neck than 

 usual at once secured a fresh range of pasture over the same 

 ground as their shorter-necked companions, and on the first 

 scarcity of food were thereby enabled to outlive them " (italics in 

 original).^ 



This is absolutely the neo-Darwinian doctrine, and a 

 denial of the mainly fortuitous character of the variations 

 in animal and vegetable forms cuts at its root. That Mr. 

 Wallace, after years of reflection, still adhered to this 

 view, is proved by his heading a reprint of the paragraph 

 just quoted from ^ with the words " Lamarck's hypo- 

 thesis very different from that now advanced " ; nor do 

 any of his more recent works show that he has modified 

 his opinion. It should be noted that Mr. Wallace does 

 not call his work " Contributions to the Theory of Evolu- 

 tion," but to that of " Natural Selection." 



Mr. Darwin, with characteristic caution, only commits 

 himself to saying that Mr. Wallace has arrived at almost 

 (italics mine) the same general conclusions as he, Mr. 

 Darwin, has done ; ^ but he stiU, as in 1859, declares that 

 it would be " a serious error to suppose that the greater 

 number of instincts have been acquired by habit in one 



• Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society. Williams & 

 Norgate, 1858, p. 61. 



" Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection, 2d ed., 1871, 

 p. 41. 



' Origin of Species, p. i, ed. 1872. 



