12 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 



of the family of martens and the civets ; yet, there is not a single fact 

 before us to cast the slightest doubt on the existence of the decided 

 partition which separates these genera. The supplemental toe, therefore, 

 of certain races of domestic dogs, is also a fact quite as feeble in sup- 

 port of the views which we are now considering, as the whole of those 

 to which we have previously referred. 



The solution of problems like these is far from being facilitated by 

 appealing to the weak authority, as is done in the present case, of such 

 men as De Maillet, or the more respectable one of Buffon, or, again, 

 that of Lamarck ; since it is well known that the theory, expressed by 

 Buffon in his Discourse on the Degeneration of Animals and on the 

 Epochs of Nature, like those which Lamarck has put forth on the 

 causes of the various forms of animals, has not obtained the slight- 

 est assent, and are now universally regarded as merely silly ema- 

 nations of the fancy, or as inferences deduced from principles, the ad- 

 mission of which was not founded on any proof or demonstration; and, 

 so far as these Epochs are concerned, the reason why we read them 

 now is, that they possess a merit of their own, which is quite inde- 

 pendent of that derived from the expression of genuine principles. — 

 Why was it that no credit or confidence was bestowed on the system 

 which Buffon described with such luminous eloquence ? Why was 

 not the theory of Lamarck believed, supported, as it was, by so many 

 arbitrary propositions ? In answer to these questions we may state, 

 that it was because, these systems were not consistent with the facts ; 

 that they were not sustained upon any foundation whatever of exact 

 observation, nor by any sort of rigorous experiments. For the pur- 

 pose of assuming the privilege of promulgating, once more, these sys- 

 tems, and endeavouring to support their authority, in order to exhibit 

 them in some new point of view, it is indispensable that the partisans 

 of such doctrines should prove, that they found in the facts opposed to 

 them other facts which they deemed favourable to their notions ; that, 

 by these, they would inspire more confidence than they were able to 

 produce at their first appearance, and, lastly, that science, with re- 

 spect to them, had been utterly subverted . But this, as we have al- 

 ready seen, is not the fact. In putting them forward as demonstra- 

 tions of the system which we combat, and with which they are con- 

 founded, we are consequently placed in a vicious circle, and there is 

 made to us now what, in logic, is styled apetitio principii. 



But if there were only the slightest proof, I shall not say of trans- 

 formation, but of the possibility of the transformation of one species 



