302 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 



the whole from the competition of individuals. Oken (1809) 

 saw the light of the evolution idea dancing like a will-o'-the-wisp 

 in the mist of his " Urschleim " speculations, and seemed 

 chiefly to interpret the organic progress in terms of action and 

 reaction between the organism and its surroundings ; while in 

 the noble epic of evolution which we owe to his contemporary 

 Goethe, the adaptive influence of the environment is clearly 

 recognised. 



Wells in 181 3, and Patrick Matthew in 1831, forestalled 

 Darwin in suggesting the importance of natural selection ; but 

 their virtually buried doctrines, however interesting historically, 

 were of less practical importance than those of Robert 

 Chambers, the long unknown author of the "Vestiges of 

 Creation " (1844-53). His hypothesis of evolution emphasised 

 the growing or evolving powers of the organisms them.selves, 

 which developed in rhythmic impulses through ascending 

 grades of organisation, modified at the same time by external 

 circumstances, which acted with most effect on the generative 

 system. It is difficult indeed to refrain from amusement or 

 irritation at the naive simplicity with which he evolves a 

 mammal from a bird, by the short and easy method of prolong- 

 ing the period of uterine life in favourable nutritive conditions; 

 but though a goose could not so simply give rise to a rat, the 

 emphasis laid on the influence of prolonged gestation is full of 

 suggestiveness, especially in relation to the evolution of 

 mammals. Apart from his common-sense view of evolution 

 as a process of continued growing. Chambers deserves to be 

 remembered as one of the first to appreciate " the force of 

 certain external conditions operating upon the parturient 

 system." 



In France, Geoffroy and Isidore St Hilaire^father and 

 son — denied indefinite variations, regarded function as of 

 secondary importance, and laid special stress upon the direct 

 influence of the environment. To them it seemed not 

 so much the effort to fly, as the (supposed) diminished pro- 

 portion of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, which had deter- 

 mined the evolution of birds from ancient reptiles. A complete 

 history of evolution theories, up to the publication of the 

 "Origm of Species" (1859), would have to take account 

 further of the opinions of the geographer Von Buch and the 

 embryologist Von Baer, of Schleiden raid Naudin, Owen and 

 Cams, and many others ; but no such survey is here our purpose. 



