MAUPERTUIS. 113 



by environment and habit, and the transmission of 

 these modifications to the descendants; in other 

 words, he advocates the 'transmission of acquired 

 characters.' 



Peter Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1698- 

 1759) was a French mathematician and astronomer 

 of considerable reputation in his day. As one of 

 the most prominent members of the eighteenth- 

 century French circle in Berlin, he was elected 

 President of the Berlin Academy in 1 746. 



His contributions to the Evolution idea are 

 pointed out by Perrier. We see in them the influ- 

 ence of Leibnitz, and learn that the reputation of 

 Maupertuis suffered from his having borrowed 

 other ideas of the German philosopher in a paper 

 which he advanced upon the Conservation of En- 

 ergy doctrine. In an obscure article, Systcmc de 

 la Nature: Essai stir la Formation des Corps Orga- 

 nises (1751), which has been unearthed in the 

 course of the present diligent search for all the 

 prophecies of Evolution, we find that Maupertuis 

 had an original theory as to the nature of living/ 

 matter; that he advanced an hypothesis of gcneraj 

 tion very similar to that of Darwin, and also a 

 theory of the origin of new species. He did not 

 anticipate the ' Evolution ' or emboUemcnt of Bonnet, 

 but advanced an hypothesis of transformism, based 

 upon the idea that all material particles are in some 

 degree invested with the psychical properties of 

 the hidier orcranisms ; in other words, the monistic 

 I 



