lamarck's ' philosophie zoologique.' 5 



go further back than the end of the last century and 

 beginning of the present — the doctrine was advo- 

 cated by Dr. Erasmus Darwin in England, and 

 Lamarck in France. The latter it was who — in his 

 ' Philosophie Zoologique ' — drew out a scheme of 

 evolution in a systematic form and in all its conse- 

 quences. 



Lamarck's conclusion was, that Nature, in pro- 

 ducing successively all the species of animals, and in 

 commencing with the most simple, to complete her 

 work with the most perfect, has gradually added to 

 the complexity of their organisation. Under the 

 influence of the circumstances into which these 

 animals fell, in their distribution all over the habitable 

 globe, each species has acquired the habits belonging 

 to it, and the modifications in its parts, which obser- 

 vation shows it to possess. Everything, therefore, 

 argues Lamarck, concurs in supporting his assertion, 

 that it is not the form of the body or of its parts 

 which gives rise to the habits and mode of life of 

 animals ; but on the contrary, that it is the habits, 

 mode of life, and other influences, which have, in the 

 course of time — ages and ages — determined the form 

 of the body and parts of animals. With new forms 

 new faculties have been acquired, and Nature has 

 gradually come to fashion animals such as we now 

 see them. 



Mr. Charles Darwin, the grandson of Dr. Eras- 

 mus Darwin before referred to, objects to Lamarck's 

 scheme of evolution, which I have just recited, as 



