PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 7 



In one of the chapters, entitled "Generation," is a 

 passage almost prophetic of the line of thought that was 

 to be one of the distinguishing features of the latter half 

 of the following century, as proclaimed by his illustrious 

 grandson, who we may reasonably suppose had dwelt 

 upon the remarkable utterance. It runs as follows : — 



" From thus meditating on the great similarity of the 

 structure of the warm-blooded animals, and, at the same 

 time, of the great changes they undergo both before and 

 after their nativity ; and by considering in how minute a 

 portion of time many of the changes of animals above 

 described have been produced ; would it be too bold to 

 imagine that in the great length of time, since the earth 

 began to exist, perhaps millions of ages before the com- 

 mencement of the history of mankind, would it be too 

 bold to imagine that all warm-blooded animals have arisen 

 from one living filament, which the Great First Cause 

 endued with animality, with the power of acquiring new 

 parts, attended with new propensities, directed by irrita- 

 tions, sensations, volitions, and associations, and thus 

 possessing the faculty of continuing to improve by its 

 own inherent activity, and of delivering down those 

 improvements by generation to its posterity, world with- 

 out end?" 



Lamarck was of a speculative nature apt to roam 

 beyond the warrant of facts. Accounting for the first 

 appearance of life through spontaneous generation by 

 means of heat and electricity, he explained in four pro- 

 positions the entire organisation of animals, viz. : — 



1. Life tends by its inherent forces to increase the 

 volume of each living body and of all its parts up to a 

 limit determined by its own needs. 



2. New wants in animals give rise to new movements 

 which produce organs. 



