THE HISTORY OF THE SCIENCE OF ZOOLOGY 377 



plant \^■ith which he came in contact and published all of 

 his observations and principles in a work entitled Sy sterna 

 Nnturcv, of which thirteen editions have Ijeen published. 

 "By universal C(;nsent the Systenia Natura- is taken as a 

 starting point by systematists." The names of Bonnet, 

 Heller, and Hunter were pr(jminent in zoology in the 

 eighteenth centuiy. As a naturalist, the name of Gilbert 

 White stands preeminent, and his book. Natural History 

 and Antiquities of Selbonic, is a classic both in science and 

 letters. However, the remaining name to which we must 

 give more than passing notice is that of Buffon. Buffon 

 was essentially a philosophical zoologist and was the first 

 of the great evolutionists. At this time it was held and, in 

 fact, could not with personal safety ])e disi)uted, that all 

 the different species of animals were immutable, or un- 

 changeable, and that each was created just as it then ap- 

 peared. On the other hand, Buffon promulgated the idea 

 of the mutability of species. He held that species of ani- 

 mals did not forever remain stable and fixed, but that they 

 gradually changed from one form to another so that new 

 species were continually being developed from existing ones. 

 In other words, he believed in the principle of evolution, 

 although he was not the first to announce such a doctrine. 

 Transition from the eighteenth to the nineteenth cen- 

 tury. — Bufl'on was followed (1774-1S29) by Lamarck, a 

 Frenchman, who held the same views in regard to the 

 mutability of species although he ascrilied different causes 

 for the changes that produced new forms. Lamarck helil 

 that there was a unity 'in the animal kingdom and that all 



' According to the prevailing conception of his time, Liunarclv held 

 the -^-iew that the animal kingdom presented a serial arrangement, 

 which differs niarkedlv trom the modern view. 



