FOOTNOTES:

Here, also, it is impossible to forget Buffon's passages on the dog, given pp. 121, 122. See also p. 223.

"Observe the gradations which are found between theranunculus aquatilisand theranunculus hederaceus: the latter—a land plant—resembles those parts of the former which grow above the surface of the water, but not those that grow beneath it.[284]

"The modifications of animals arise more slowly than those of plants; they are therefore less easily watched, and less easily assignable to their true causes, but they arise none the less surely. As regards these causes, the most potent is diversity of the surroundings in which they exist, but there are also many others.[285]

"The climate of the same place changes, and the place itself changes with changed climate and exposure, but so slowly that we imagine all lands to be stable in their conditions. This, however, is not true; climatic and other changes induce corresponding changes in environment and habit, and these modify the structure of the living forms which are subjected to them. Indeed, we see intermediate forms and species corresponding to intermediate conditions.

"To the above causes must be ascribed the infinite variety of existing forms, independently of any tendency towards progressive development."[286]

The reader has now before him a fair sample of "the well-known doctrine of inherited habit as advanced by Lamarck."[287]In what way, let me ask in passing, does "the case of neuter insects" prove "demonstrative" against it, unless it is held equally demonstrative against Mr. Darwin's own position? Lamarck continues:—

"The character of any habitable quarter of the globe isquâman constant: the constancy of type in species is therefore alsoquâman persistent. But this is anillusion. We establish, therefore, the three following propositions:—

"1. That every considerable and sustained change in the surroundings of any animal involves a real change in its needs.

"2. That such change of needs involves the necessity of changed action in order to satisfy these needs, and, in consequence, of new habits.[288]

"3. It follows that such and such parts, formerly less used, are now more frequently employed, and in consequence become more highly developed; new parts also become insensibly evolved in the creature by its own efforts from within.

"From the foregoing these two general laws may be deduced:—

"Firstly. That in every animal which has not passed its limit of development, the more frequent and sustained employment of any organ develops and aggrandizes it, giving it a power proportionate to the duration of its employment, while the same organ in default of constant use becomes insensibly weakened and deteriorated, decreasing imperceptibly in power until it finally disappears.[289]

"Secondly. That these gains or losses of organic development, due to use or disuse, are transmitted to offspring, provided they have been common to both sexes, or to the animals from which the offspring have descended."[290]

Lamarck now sets himself to establish the fact that animals have developed modifications which have been transmitted to their offspring.

"Naturalists," he says, "have believed that the possession of certain organs has led to their employment. This is not so: it is need and use which have developed the organs, and even called them into existence." [I have already sufficiently insisted that it is impossible to dispense with either of these two views. Demand and Supply have gone hand in hand, each reacting upon the other.] "Otherwise a special act of creation would be necessary for every different combination of conditions; and it would be also necessary that the conditions should remain always constant.

"If this were really so we should have no racehorses like those of England, nor drayhorses so heavy in build and so unlike the racehorse; for there are no such breeds in a wild state. For the same reason, we should have no turnspit dogs with crooked legs, no greyhounds nor water-spaniels; we should have no tailless breed of fowls nor fantail pigeons, &c. Nor should we be able to cultivate wild plants in our gardens, for any length of time we please, without fear of their changing.

"'Habit,' says the proverb, 'is a second nature'; what possible meaning can this proverb have, if descent with modification is unfounded?[291]

"As regards the circumstances which give rise to variation, the principal are climatic changes, different temperatures of any of a creature's environments, differences of abode, of habit, of the most frequent actions; and lastly, of the means of obtaining food, self-defence, reproduction, &c., &c."[292]

Here we have absolute agreement with Dr. Erasmus Darwin,[293]except that there seems a tendency in this passage to assign more effect to the direct action of conditions than is common with Lamarck. He seems to be mixing Buffon and Dr. Darwin.

"In consequence of change in any of these respects, the faculties of an animal become extended and enlarged by use: they become diversified through the long continuance of the new habits, until little by little their whole structure and nature, as well as the organs originally affected, participate in the effects of all these influences, and are modified to an extent which is capable of transmission to offspring."[294]

This sentence alone would be sufficient to show that Lamarck was as much alive as Buffon and Dr. Darwin were before him, to the fact that one of the most important conditions of an animal's life, is the relation in which it stands to the other inhabitants of the same neighbourhood—from which the survival of the fittest follows as a self-evident proposition. Nothing, therefore, can be more unfounded than the attempt, so frequently made by writers who have not read Lamarck, or who think others may be trusted not to do so, to represent him as maintaining something perfectly different from what is maintained by modern writers on evolution. The difference, in so far as there is any difference, is one of detail only. Lamarck would not have hesitated to admit, that, if animals are modified in a direction which is favourable to them, they will have a better chance of surviving and transmitting their favourablemodifications. In like manner, our modern evolutionists should allow that animals are modified not because they subsequently survive, but because they have done this or that which has led to their modification, and hence to their surviving.

Having established that animals and plants are capable of being materially changed in the course of a few generations, Lamarck proceeds to show that their modification is due to changed distribution of the use and disuse of their organs at any given time.

"The disuse of an organ," he writes, "if it becomes constant in consequence of new habits, gradually reduces the organ, and leads finally to its disappearance."[295]

"Thus whales have lost their teeth, though teeth are still found in the embryo. So, again, M. Geoffroy has discovered in birds the groove where teeth were formerly placed. The ant-eater, which belongs to a genus that has long relinquished the habit of masticating its food, is as toothless as the whale."[296]

Then are adduced further examples of rudimentary organs, which will be given in another place, and need not be repeated here. Speaking of the fact, however, that serpents have no legs, though they are higher in the scale of life than the batrachians, Lamarck attributes this "to the continued habit of trying to squeeze through very narrow places, where four feet would be in the way, and would be very little good to them, inasmuch as more than four would be wanted in order to turn bodies that were already so much elongated."[297]

If it be asked why, on Lamarck's theory, if serpentswanted more legs they could not have made them, the answer is that the attempt to do this would be to unsettle a question which had been already so long settled, that it would be impossible to reopen it. The animal must adapt itself to four legs, or must get rid of all or some of them if it does not like them; but it has stood so long committed to the theory that if there are to be legs at all, there are to be not more than four, that it is impossible for it now to see this matter in any other light.

The experiments of M. Brown Séquard on guinea pigs, quoted by Mr. Darwin,[298]suggest that the form of the serpent may be due to its having lost its legs by successive accidents in squeezing through narrow places, and that the wounds having been followed by disease, the creature may have bitten the limbs off, in which case the loss might have been very readily transmitted to offspring; the animal would accordingly take to a sinuous mode of progression that would doubtless in time elongate the body still further. M. Brown Séquard "carefully recorded" thirteen cases, and saw even a greater number, in which the loss of toes by guinea pigs which had gnawed their own toes off, was immediately transmitted to offspring. Accidents followed by disease seem to have been somewhat overlooked as a possible means of modification. The missing forefinger to the hand of the potto[299]would appear at first sight to have been lost by some such mishap. Returning to Lamarck, we find him saying:—

"Even in the lifetime of a single individual we can see organic changes in consequence of changed habits. Thus M. Tenon has constantly found the intestinal canal of drunkards to be greatly shorter than that of people who do not drink. This is due to the fact that habitual drunkards eat but little solid food, so that the stomach and intestines are more rarely distended. The same applies to people who lead studious and sedentary lives. The stomachs of such persons and of drunkards have little power, and a small quantity will fill them, while those of men who take plenty of exercise remain in full vigour and are even increased."[300]

It becomes now necessary to establish the converse proposition, namely that:—

"The frequent use of an organ increases its power; it even develops the organ itself, and makes it acquire dimensions and powers which it is not found to have in animals which make no use of such an organ.

"In support of this we see that the bird whose needs lead it to the water, in which to find its prey, extends the toes of its feet when it wants to strike the water, and move itself upon the surface. The skin at the base of the toes of such a bird contracts the habit of extending itself from continual practice. To this cause, in the course of time, must be attributed the wide membrane which unites the toes of ducks, geese, &c. The same efforts to swim, that is to say, to push the water for the purpose of moving itself forward, has extended the membrane between the toes of frogs, turtles, the otter, and the beaver."[301]

[This is taken, I believe, from Dr. Darwin or Buffon, but I have lost the passage, if, indeed, I ever found it. It had been met by Paley some years earlier (1802) in the following:—

"There is nothing in the action of swimming as carried on by a bird upon the surface of the water that should generate a membrane between the toes. As to that membrane it is an action of constant resistance.... The web feet of amphibious quadrupeds, seals, otters, &c., fall under the same observation."[302]]

"On the other hand those birds whose habits lead them to perch on trees, and which have sprung from parents that have long contracted this habit, have their toes shaped in a perfectly different manner. Their claws become lengthened, sharpened, and curved, so as to enable the creature to lay hold of the boughs on which it so often rests. The shore bird again, which does not like to swim, is nevertheless continually obliged to enter the water when searching after its prey. Not liking to plunge its body in the water, it makes every endeavour to extend and lengthen its lower limbs. In the course of long time these birds have come to be elevated, as it were, on stilts, and have got long legs bare of feathers as far as their thighs, and often still higher. The same bird is continually trying to extend its neck in order to fish without wetting its body, and in the course of time its neck has become modified accordingly.[303]

"Swans, indeed, and geese have short legs and verylong necks, but this is because they plunge their heads as low in the water as they can in their search for aquatic larvæ and other animalcules, but make no effort to lengthen their legs."[304]

This too is taken from some passage which I have either never seen or have lost sight of. Paley never gives a reference to an opponent, though he frequently does so when quoting an author on his own side, but I can hardly doubt that he had in his mind the passage from which Lamarck in 1809 derived the foregoing, when in 1802 he wrote § 5 of chapter xv. and the latter half of chapter xxiii. of his 'Natural Theology.'

"The tongues of the ant-eater and the woodpecker," continues Lamarck, "have become elongated from similar causes. Humming birds catch hold of things with their tongues; serpents and lizards use their tongues to touch and reconnoitre objects in front of them, hence their tongues have come to be forked.

"Need—always occasioned by the circumstances in which an animal is placed, and followed by sustained efforts at gratification—can not only modify an organ, that is to say, augment or reduce it, but can change its position when the case requires its removal.[305]

"Ocean fishes have occasion to see what is on either side of them, and have their eyes accordingly placed on either side their head. Some fishes, however, have their abode near coasts on submarine banks and inclinations, and are thus forced to flatten themselves as much as possible in order to get as near as they can to the shore. In this situation they receive more lightfrom above than from below, and find it necessary to pay attention to whatever happens to be above them; this need has involved the displacement of their eyes, which now take the remarkable position which we observe in the case of soles, turbots, plaice, &c. The transfer of position is not even yet complete in the case of these fishes, and the eyes are not, therefore, symmetrically placed; but they are so with the skate, whose head and whole body are equally disposed on either side a longitudinal section. Hence the eyes of this fish are placed symmetrically upon the uppermost side.[306]

"The eyes of serpents are placed on the sides and upper portions of the head, so that they can easily see what is on one side of them or above them; but they can only see very little in front of them, and supplement this deficiency of power with their tongue, which is very long and supple, and is in many kinds so divided that it can touch more than one object at a time; the habit of reconnoitring objects in front of them with their tongues has even led to their being able to pass it through the end of their nostrils without being obliged to open their jaws.[307]

"Herbivorous mammals, such as the elephant, rhinoceros, ox, buffalo, horse, &c., owe their great size to their habit of daily distending themselves with food and taking comparatively little exercise. They employ their feet for standing, walking, or running, but not for climbing trees. Hence the thick horn which covers their toes. These toes have become useless to them, and are now in many cases rudimentary only. Somepachyderms have five toes covered with horn; some four, some three. The ruminants, which appear to be the earliest mammals that confined themselves to a life upon the ground, have but two hooves, while the horse has only one.[308]

"Some herbivorous animals, especially among the ruminants, have been incessantly preyed upon by carnivorous animals, against which their only refuge is in flight. Necessity has therefore developed the light and active limbs of antelopes, gazelles, &c. Ruminants, only using their jaws to graze with, have but little power in them, and therefore generally fight with their heads. The males fight frequently with one another, and their desires prompt an access of fluids to the parts of their heads with which they fight; thus the horns and bosses have arisen with which the heads of most of these animals are armed.[309]The giraffe owes its long neck to its continued habit of browsing upon trees, whence also the great length of its fore legs as compared with its hinder ones. Carnivorous animals, in like manner, have had their organs modified in correlation with their desires and habits. Some climb, some scratch in order to burrow in the earth, some tear their prey; they therefore have need of toes, and we find their toes separated and armed with claws. Some of them are great hunters, and also plunge their claws deeply into the bodies of their victims, trying to tear out the part on which they have seized; this habit has developed a size and curvature of claw which would impede them greatly in travelling over stony ground;they have therefore been obliged to make efforts to draw back their too projecting claws, and so, little by little, has arisen the peculiar sheath into which cats, tigers, lions, &c., withdraw their claws when they no longer wish to use them.[310]

"We see then that the long-sustained and habitual exercise of any part of a living organism, in consequence of the necessities engendered by its environment, develops such part, and gives it a form which it would never have attained if the exercise had not become an habitual action. All known animals furnish us with examples of this.[311]If anyone maintains that the especially powerful development of any organ has had nothing to do with its habitual use—that use has added nothing, and disuse detracted nothing from its efficiency, but that the organ has always been as we now see it from the creation of the particular species onwards—I would ask why cannot our domesticated ducks fly like wild ducks? I would also quote a multitude of examples of the effects of use and disuse upon our own organs, effects which, if the use and disuse were constant for many generations, would become much more marked.

"A great number of facts show, as will be more fully insisted on, that when its will prompts an animal to this or that action, the organs which are to execute it receive an excess of nervous fluid, and this is the determinant cause of the movements necessary for the required action. Modifications acquired in this way eventually become permanent in the breed that hasacquired them, and are transmitted to offspring, without the offspring's having itself gone through the processes of acquisition which were necessary in the case of the ancestor.[312]Frequent crosses, however, with unmodified individuals, destroy the effect produced. It is only owing to the isolation of the races of man through geographical and other causes, that man himself presents so many varieties, each with a distinctive character.

"A review of all existing classes, orders, genera, and species would show that their structure, organs, and faculties, are in all cases solely attributable to the surroundings to which each creature has been subjected by nature, and to the habits which individuals have been compelled to contract; and that they are not at all the result of a form originally bestowed, which has imposed certain habits upon the creature.[313]

"It is unnecessary to multiply instances; the fact is simply this, that all animals have certain habits, and that their organization is always in perfect harmony with these habits.[314]The conclusion hitherto accepted is that the Author of Nature, when he created animals, foresaw all the possible circumstances in which they would be placed, and gave an unchanging organism to each creature, in accordance with its future destiny. The conclusion, on the other hand, here maintained is that nature has evolved all existing forms of life successively, beginning with the simplest organisms and gradually proceeding to those which are more complete. Forms of life have spread themselves throughout all the habitable parts of the earth, andeach species has received its habits and corresponding modification of organs, from the influence of the surroundings in which it found itself placed.[315]

"The first conclusion supposes an unvarying organism and unvarying conditions. The second, which is my theory (la mienne propre), supposes that each animal is capable of modifications which in the course of generations amount to a wide divergence of type.

"If a single animal can be shown to have varied considerably under domestication, the first conclusion is proved to be inadmissible, and the second to be in conformity with the laws of nature."

This is a milder version of Buffon's conclusion (seeante, pp.90,91). It is a little grating to read the words "la mienne propre," and to recall no mention of Buffon in the 'Philosophie Zoologique.'

"Animal forms then are the result of conditions of life and of the habits engendered thereby. With new forms new faculties are developed, and thus nature has little by little evolved the existing differentiations of animal and vegetable life."[316]

Lamarck makes no exception in man's favour to the rule of descent with modification. He supposes that a race of quadrumanous apes gradually acquired the upright position in walking, with a corresponding modification of the feet and facial angle. Such a race having become master of all the other animals, spread itself over all parts of the world that suited it. It hunted out the other higher races which were in a condition to dispute with it for enjoyment of theworld's productions, and drove them to take refuge in such places as it did not desire to occupy. It checked the increase of the races nearest itself, and kept them exiled in woods and desert places, so that their further development was arrested, while itself, able to spread in all directions, to multiply without opposition, and to lead a social life, it developed new requirements one after another, which urged it to industrial pursuits, and gradually perfected its capabilities. Eventually this pre-eminent race, having acquired absolute supremacy, came to be widely different from even the most perfect of the lower animals.

"Certain apes approach man more nearly than any other animal approaches him; nevertheless, they are far inferior to him, both in bodily and mental capacity. Some of them frequently stand upright, but as they do not habitually maintain this attitude, their organization has not been sufficiently modified to prevent it from being irksome to them to stand for long together. They fall on all fours immediately at the approach of danger. This reveals their true origin.[317]

"But is the upright position altogether natural, even to man? He uses it in moving from place to place, but still standing is a fatiguing position, and one which can only be maintained for a limited time, and by the aid of muscular contraction. The vertebrate column does not pass through the axis of the head so as to maintain it in like equilibrium with other limbs. The head, chest, stomach, and intestines weigh almost entirely on the anterior part of the vertebrate column, and thiscolumn itself is placed obliquely, so that, as M. Richerand has observed, continual watchfulness and muscular exertion are necessary to avoid the falls towards which the weight and disposition of our parts are continually inclining us. 'Children,' he remarks, 'have a constant tendency to assume the position of quadrupeds.'"[318]

"Surely these facts should reveal man's origin as analogous to that of the other mammals, if his organization only be looked to. But the following consideration must be added. New wants, developed in societies which had become numerous, must have correspondingly multiplied the ideas of this dominant race, whose individuals must have therefore gradually felt the need of fuller communication with each other. Hence the necessity for increasing and varying the number of the signs suitable for mutual understanding. It is plain therefore that incessant efforts would be made in this direction.[319]

"The lower animals, though often social, have been kept in too great subjection for any such development of power. They continue, therefore, stationary as regards their wants and ideas, very few of which need be communicated from one individual to another. A few movements of the body, a few simple cries and whistles, or inflexions of voice, would suffice for their purpose. With the dominant race, on the other hand, the continued multiplication of ideas which it was desirable to communicate rapidly, would exhaust the power of pantomimic gesture and of all possibleinflexions of the voice—therefore by a succession of efforts this race arrived at the utterance of articulate sounds. A few only would be at first made use of, and these would be supplemented by inflexions of the voice: presently they would increase in number, variety, and appropriateness, with the increase of needs and of the efforts made to speak. Habitual exercise would increase the power of the lips and tongue to articulate distinctly.

"The diversity of language is due to geographical distribution, with consequent greater or less isolation of certain races, and corruption of the signs originally agreed upon for each idea. Man's own wants, therefore, will have achieved the whole result. They will have given rise to endeavour, and habitual use will have developed the organs of articulation."[320]

How, let me ask again, is "the case of neuter insects" "demonstrative" against the "well-known" theory put forward in the foregoing chapter?

FOOTNOTES:[208]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i., edited by M. Martins, 1873, pp. 25, 26.[209]'Phil. Zool.' tom. i. pp. 26, 27.[210]Page 28.[211]Pages 28-31.[212]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. pp. 34, 35.[213]Page 42.[214]Page 46.[215]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 50.[216]Pages 50, 51.[217]'Origin of Species,' p. 395, ed. 1876.[218]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 61.[219]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 62.[220]Page 63.[221]Page 64.[222]Page 65.[223]Page 67.[224]Chap. iii.[225]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 72.[226]Pages 71-73.[227]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 74, 75.[228]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. pp. 75-77.[229]'Origin of Species,' p. 104, ed. 1876.[230]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 79.[231]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. pp. 79, 80.[232]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 80.[233]Page 80.[234]Ed. 1876.[235]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 81.[236]'Origin of Species,' p. 241.[237]'Phil. Zool.,' p. 82.[238]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 83.[239]Pages 349-351.[240]Page 84.[241]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 88.[242]Page 90.[243]'Origin of Species,' p. 3.[244]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 94.[245]Pages 95-96.[246]Page 97.[247]Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 98.[248]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 111.[249]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 112.[250]See pp.227and259of this book.[251]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 113.[252]Page 113.[253]'Phil Zool.,' tom. i. p. 113.[254]This passage is rather obscure. I give it therefore in the original:—"Ainsi les naturalistes ayant remarqué que beaucoup d'espèces, certains genres, et même quelques familles paraissent dans une sorte d'isolement, quant à leurs caractères, plusieurs se sont imaginés que les êtres vivants, dans l'un ou l'autre règne, s'avoisinaient, ou s'éloignaient entre eux, relativement à leursrapports naturels, dans une disposition semblable aux differents points d'une carte de géographie ou d'une mappemonde. Ils regardent les petites séries bien prononcées qu'on a nommées familles naturelles, comme devant être disposées entre elles de manière à former une réticulation. Cette idée qui a paru sublime à quelques modernes, est évidemment une erreur, et, sans doute, elle se dissipera dès qu'on aura des connaissances plus profondes et plus générales de l'organisation, et surtout lorsqu'on distinguera ce qui appartient à l'influence des lieux d'habitation et des habitudes contractées, de ce qui résulte des progrès plus ou moins avancés dans la composition ou le perfectionnement de l'organisation."—(p. 120).[255]'Origin of Species,' pp. 265, 266.[256]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 121.[257]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 122.[258]'Origin of Species,' pp. 122, 123.[259]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 123.[260]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 123.[261]'Origin of Species,' chap. xiv.[262]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 123.[263]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 140.[264]Page 142.[265]Page 143.[266]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 143.[267]Page 144.[268]Ibid.[269]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 145.[270]Page 146.[271]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 221.[272]Page 222.[273]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 223.[274]Page 224.[275]Page 223.[276]Page 225.[277]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 225.[278]Page 226.[279]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 228.[280]See Buffon, 'Hist. Nat.,' tom. v. pp. 196, 197, and Supp. tom. v. pp. 250-253.[281]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 229.[282]'Hist. Nat.,' tom. xi. p. 290.[283]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 231.[284]Page 231. See Dr. Darwin's note onTrapa natans, 'Botanic Garden,' part ii. canto 4, l. 204.[285]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 232.[286]Page 233. See Buffon on Climate, tom. ix., 'The Animals of the Old and New Worlds.'[287]'Origin of Species,' p. 233, ed. 1876.[288]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p 234.[289]Page 235.[290]Page 236.[291]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 237.[292]Page 238.[293]Seeante, pp. 220-228.[294]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 239.[295]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p 240.[296]Page 241.[297]Page 245.[298]'Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. i. p. 467, &c.[299]See frontispiece to Professor Mivart's 'Genesis of Species.'[300]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 247.[301]Page 248.[302]'Nat. Theol.,' vol. xii., end of § viii.[303]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 249.[304]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 250.[305]Page 250.[306]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 251.[307]Page 252.[308]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 253.[309]Page 254.[310]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 256.[311]Page 257.[312]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 259.[313]Page 260.[314]Page 263.[315]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 263.[316]Page 265.[317]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 343.[318]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 343.[319]Page 346.[320]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 347.

[208]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i., edited by M. Martins, 1873, pp. 25, 26.

[209]'Phil. Zool.' tom. i. pp. 26, 27.

[210]Page 28.

[211]Pages 28-31.

[212]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. pp. 34, 35.

[213]Page 42.

[214]Page 46.

[215]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 50.

[216]Pages 50, 51.

[217]'Origin of Species,' p. 395, ed. 1876.

[218]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 61.

[219]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 62.

[220]Page 63.

[221]Page 64.

[222]Page 65.

[223]Page 67.

[224]Chap. iii.

[225]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 72.

[226]Pages 71-73.

[227]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 74, 75.

[228]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. pp. 75-77.

[229]'Origin of Species,' p. 104, ed. 1876.

[230]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 79.

[231]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. pp. 79, 80.

[232]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 80.

[233]Page 80.

[234]Ed. 1876.

[235]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 81.

[236]'Origin of Species,' p. 241.

[237]'Phil. Zool.,' p. 82.

[238]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 83.

[239]Pages 349-351.

[240]Page 84.

[241]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 88.

[242]Page 90.

[243]'Origin of Species,' p. 3.

[244]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 94.

[245]Pages 95-96.

[246]Page 97.

[247]Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 98.

[248]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 111.

[249]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 112.

[250]See pp.227and259of this book.

[251]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 113.

[252]Page 113.

[253]'Phil Zool.,' tom. i. p. 113.

[254]This passage is rather obscure. I give it therefore in the original:—"Ainsi les naturalistes ayant remarqué que beaucoup d'espèces, certains genres, et même quelques familles paraissent dans une sorte d'isolement, quant à leurs caractères, plusieurs se sont imaginés que les êtres vivants, dans l'un ou l'autre règne, s'avoisinaient, ou s'éloignaient entre eux, relativement à leursrapports naturels, dans une disposition semblable aux differents points d'une carte de géographie ou d'une mappemonde. Ils regardent les petites séries bien prononcées qu'on a nommées familles naturelles, comme devant être disposées entre elles de manière à former une réticulation. Cette idée qui a paru sublime à quelques modernes, est évidemment une erreur, et, sans doute, elle se dissipera dès qu'on aura des connaissances plus profondes et plus générales de l'organisation, et surtout lorsqu'on distinguera ce qui appartient à l'influence des lieux d'habitation et des habitudes contractées, de ce qui résulte des progrès plus ou moins avancés dans la composition ou le perfectionnement de l'organisation."—(p. 120).

[254]This passage is rather obscure. I give it therefore in the original:—

"Ainsi les naturalistes ayant remarqué que beaucoup d'espèces, certains genres, et même quelques familles paraissent dans une sorte d'isolement, quant à leurs caractères, plusieurs se sont imaginés que les êtres vivants, dans l'un ou l'autre règne, s'avoisinaient, ou s'éloignaient entre eux, relativement à leursrapports naturels, dans une disposition semblable aux differents points d'une carte de géographie ou d'une mappemonde. Ils regardent les petites séries bien prononcées qu'on a nommées familles naturelles, comme devant être disposées entre elles de manière à former une réticulation. Cette idée qui a paru sublime à quelques modernes, est évidemment une erreur, et, sans doute, elle se dissipera dès qu'on aura des connaissances plus profondes et plus générales de l'organisation, et surtout lorsqu'on distinguera ce qui appartient à l'influence des lieux d'habitation et des habitudes contractées, de ce qui résulte des progrès plus ou moins avancés dans la composition ou le perfectionnement de l'organisation."—(p. 120).

[255]'Origin of Species,' pp. 265, 266.

[256]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 121.

[257]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 122.

[258]'Origin of Species,' pp. 122, 123.

[259]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 123.

[260]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 123.

[261]'Origin of Species,' chap. xiv.

[262]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 123.

[263]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 140.

[264]Page 142.

[265]Page 143.

[266]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 143.

[267]Page 144.

[268]Ibid.

[269]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 145.

[270]Page 146.

[271]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 221.

[272]Page 222.

[273]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 223.

[274]Page 224.

[275]Page 223.

[276]Page 225.

[277]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 225.

[278]Page 226.

[279]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 228.

[280]See Buffon, 'Hist. Nat.,' tom. v. pp. 196, 197, and Supp. tom. v. pp. 250-253.

[281]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 229.

[282]'Hist. Nat.,' tom. xi. p. 290.

[283]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 231.

[284]Page 231. See Dr. Darwin's note onTrapa natans, 'Botanic Garden,' part ii. canto 4, l. 204.

[285]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 232.

[286]Page 233. See Buffon on Climate, tom. ix., 'The Animals of the Old and New Worlds.'

[287]'Origin of Species,' p. 233, ed. 1876.

[288]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p 234.

[289]Page 235.

[290]Page 236.

[291]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 237.

[292]Page 238.

[293]Seeante, pp. 220-228.

[294]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 239.

[295]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p 240.

[296]Page 241.

[297]Page 245.

[298]'Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. i. p. 467, &c.

[299]See frontispiece to Professor Mivart's 'Genesis of Species.'

[300]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 247.

[301]Page 248.

[302]'Nat. Theol.,' vol. xii., end of § viii.

[303]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 249.

[304]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 250.

[305]Page 250.

[306]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 251.

[307]Page 252.

[308]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 253.

[309]Page 254.

[310]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 256.

[311]Page 257.

[312]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 259.

[313]Page 260.

[314]Page 263.

[315]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 263.

[316]Page 265.

[317]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 343.

[318]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 343.

[319]Page 346.

[320]'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 347.

CHAPTER XVIII.

MR. PATRICK MATTHEW, MM. ÉTIENNE AND ISIDORE GEOFFROY ST. HILAIRE, AND MR. HERBERT SPENCER.

The same complaint must be made against Mr. Matthew's excellent survey of the theory of evolution, as against Dr. Erasmus Darwin's original exposition of the same theory, namely, that it is too short. It may be very true that brevity is the soul of wit, but the leaders of science will generally succeed in burking new-born wit, unless the brevity of its soul is found compatible with a body of some bulk.

Mr. Darwin writes thus concerning Mr. Matthew in the historical sketch to which I have already more than once referred.

"In 1831 Mr. Patrick Matthew published his work on 'Naval Timber and Arboriculture,' in which he gives precisely the same view on the origin of species as that (presently to be alluded to) propounded by Mr. Wallace and myself in the 'Linnean Journal,' and as that enlarged in the present volume. Unfortunately the view was given by Mr. Matthew very briefly, in scattered passages in an appendix to a work on a different subject, so that it remained unnoticed until Mr. Matthew himself drew attention to it in the 'Gardener's Chronicle' for April 7, 1860. The differences of Mr. Matthew'sview from mine are not of much importance; he seems to consider that the world was nearly depopulated at successive periods, and then re-stocked, and he gives as an alternative, that new forms may be generated 'without the presence of any mould or germ of former aggregates.' I am not sure that I understand some passages; but it seems that he attributes much influence to the direct action of the conditions of life. He clearly saw, however, the full force of the principle of natural selection."[321]

Nothing could well be more misleading. If Mr. Matthew's view of the origin of species is "precisely the same as that" propounded by Mr. Darwin, it is hard to see how Mr. Darwin can call those of Lamarck and Dr. Erasmus Darwin "erroneous"; for Mr. Matthew's is nothing but an excellent and well-digested summary of the conclusions arrived at by these two writers and by Buffon. If, again, Mr. Darwin is correct in saying that Mr. Matthew "clearly saw the full force of the principle of natural selection," he condemns the view he has himself taken of it in his 'Origin of Species,' for Mr. Darwin has assigned a far more important and very different effect to the fact that the fittest commonly survive in the struggle for existence, than Mr. Matthew has done. Mr. Matthew sees a cause underlying all variations; he takes the most teleological or purposive view of organism that has been taken by any writer (not a theologian) except myself, while Mr. Darwin's view, if not the least teleological, is certainly nearly so, and his confession of inability to detect anygeneral cause underlying variations, leaves, as will appear presently, less than common room for ambiguity. Here are Mr. Matthew's own words:—

"There is a law universal in nature, tending to render every reproductive being the best possibly suited to the condition that its kind, or that organized matter is susceptible of, and which appears intended to model the physical and mental or instinctive, powers to their highest perfection, and to continue them so. This law sustains the lion in his strength, the hare in her swiftness, and the fox in his wiles. As nature in all her modifications of life has a power of increase far beyond what is needed to supply the place of what falls by Time's decay, those individuals who possess not the requisite strength, swiftness, hardihood, or cunning, fall prematurely without reproducing—either a prey to their natural devourers, or sinking under disease, generally induced by want of nourishment, their place being occupied by the more perfect of their own kind, who are pressing on the means of existence.

"Throughout this volume, we have felt considerable inconvenience from the adopted dogmatical classification of plants, and have all along been floundering between species and variety, which certainly under culture soften into each other. A particular conformity, each after its own kind, when in a state of nature, termed species, no doubt exists to a considerable degree. This conformity has existed during the last forty centuries; geologists discover a like particular conformity—fossil species—through the deep deposition of each great epoch; but they also discover an almost complete difference to existbetween the species or stamp of life of one epoch from that of every other. We are therefore led to admit either a repeated miraculous conception, ora power of change under change of circumstancesto belong to living organized matter, or rather to the congeries of inferior life which appears to form superior." (By this I suppose Mr. Matthew to imply his assent to the theory, that our personality or individuality is but as it were "the consensus, or full flowing river of a vast number of subordinate individualities or personalities, each one of which is a living being with thoughts and wishes of its own.") "The derangements and changes in organized existence, induced by a change of circumstances from the interference of man, afford us proof of the plastic quality of superior life; and the likelihood that circumstances have been very different in the different epochs, though steady in each, tend strongly to heighten the probability of the latter theory.

"When we view the immense calcareous and bituminous formations, principally from the waters and atmosphere, and consider the oxidations and depositions which have taken place, either gradually or during some of the great convulsions, it appears at least probable that the liquid elements containing life have varied considerably at different times in composition and weight; that our atmosphere has contained a much greater proportion of carbonic acid or oxygen; and our waters, aided by excess of carbonic acid, and greater heat resulting from greater density of atmosphere, have contained a greater quantity of lime, and other mineral solutions. Is the inference, then, unphilosophic thatliving things which are proved to havea circumstance-suiting power(a very slight change of circumstance by culture inducing a corresponding change of character), may have gradually accommodated themselves to the variations of the elements containing them, and without new creation, have presented the diverging changeable phenomena of past and present organized existence?

"The destructive liquid currents before which the hardest mountains have been swept and comminuted into gravel, sand, and mud, which intervened between and divided these epochs, probably extending over the whole surface of the globe and destroying nearly all living things, must have reduced existence so much that an unoccupied field would be formed for new diverging ramifications of life, which from the connected sexual system of vegetables, and the natural instinct of animals to herd and combine with their own kind, would fall into specific groups—these remnants in the course of time moulding and accommodating their being anew to the change of circumstances, and to every possible means of subsistence—and the millions of ages of regularity which appear to have followed between the epochs, probably after this accommodation was completed, affording fossil deposit of regular specific character.

. . . . . . . . . . .

"In endeavouring to trace ... the principle of these changes of fashion which have taken place in the domiciles of life the following questions occur: Do they arise from admixture of species nearly allied producing intermediate species? Are they the diverging ramificationsof the living principle under modification of circumstance? or have they resulted from the combined agency of both?

"Is there only one living principle? Does organized existence, and perhaps all material existence, consist of one Proteus principle of lifecapable of gradual circumstance-suited modifications and aggregations without bound, under the solvent or motion-giving principle of heat or light? There is more beauty and unity of design in this continual balancing of life to circumstance, and greater conformity to those dispositions of nature that are manifest to us, than in total destruction and new creation. It is improbable that much of this diversification is owing to commixture of species nearly allied; all change by this appears very limited and confined within the bounds of what is called species; the progeny of the same parents under great difference of circumstance, might in several generations even become distinct species, incapable of co-reproduction.

"The self-regulating adaptive disposition of organized life may, in part, be traced to the extreme fecundity of nature, who, as before stated, has in all the varieties of her offspring a prolific power much beyond (in many cases a thousand fold) what is necessary to fill up the vacancies caused by senile decay. As the field of existence is limited and preoccupied, it is only the hardier, more robust, better suited to circumstance individuals, who are able to struggle forward to maturity, these inhabiting only the situations to which they havesuperior adaptation and greater power of occupancythan any other kind; the weaker and less circumstance-suited being prematurely destroyed. This principle is in constant action; it regulates the colour, the figure, the capacities, and instincts; those individuals in each species whose colour and covering are best suited to concealment or protection from enemies, or defence from inclemencies and vicissitudes of climate, whose figure is best accommodated to health, strength, defence, and support; whose capacities and instincts can best regulate the physical energies to self-advantage according to circumstances—in such immense waste of primary and youthful life those only come forward to maturity from the strict ordeal by which nature tests their adaptation to her standard of perfection and fitness to continue their kind by reproduction.

"From the unremitting operation of this law acting in concert with the tendency which the progeny have to take the more particular qualities of the parents, together with the connected sexual system in vegetables and instinctive limitation to its own kind in animals, a considerable uniformity of figure, colour, and character is induced constituting species; the breed gradually acquiring the very best possible adaptation of these to its condition which it is susceptible of, and when alteration of circumstance occurs, thus changing in character to suit these, as far as its nature is susceptible of change.

"This circumstance-adaptive law operating upon the slight but continued natural disposition to sport in the progeny (seedling variety)does not preclude the supposed influence which volition or sensation may have had overthe configuration of the body. To examine into the disposition to sport in the progeny, even when there is only one parent as in many vegetables, and to investigate how much variation is modified by the mind or nervous sensation of the parents, or of the living thing itself during its progress to maturity; how far it depends upon external circumstance, and how far on the will, irritability, and muscular exertion, is open to examination and experiment. In the first place, we ought to examine its dependency upon the preceding links of the particular chain of life, variety being often merely types or approximations of former parentage; thence the variation of the family as well as of the individual must be embraced by our experiments.

"This continuation of family type, not broken by casual particular aberration, is mental as well as corporeal, and is exemplified in many of the dispositions or instincts of particular races of men.These innate or continuous ideas or habits seem proportionally greater in the insect tribes, and in those especially of shorter revolution; and forming an abiding memory, may resolve much of the enigma of instinct, and the foreknowledge which these tribes have of what is necessary to completing their round of life, reducing this to knowledge or impressions and habits acquired by a long experience.

"This greater continuity of existence, or rather continuity of perceptions and impressions in insects, is highly probable;it is even difficult in some to ascertain the particular steps when each individual commences, under the different phases of egg, larva, pupa, or if much consciousness of individuality exists. The continuationof reproduction for several generations by the females alone in some of these tribes,tends to the probability of the greater continuity of existence; and the subdivisions of life by cuttings (even in animal life), at any rate, must stagger the advocate of individuality.

"Among the millions of specific varieties of living things which occupy the humid portions of the surface of our planet, as far back as can be traced, there does not appear, with the exception of man, to have been any particular engrossing race, but a pretty fair balance of power of occupancy—or rather most wonderful variation of circumstance parallel to the nature of every species,as if circumstance and species had grown up together. There are, indeed, several races which have threatened ascendancy in some particular regions; but it is man alone from whom any general imminent danger to the existence of his brethren is to be dreaded.

"As far back as history reaches, man had already had considerable influence, and had made encroachments upon his fellow denizens, probably occasioning the destruction of many species, and the production and continuation of a number of varieties, and even species, which he found more suited to supply his wants, but which from the infirmity of their condition—not having undergone selection by the law of nature, of which we have spoken—cannot maintain their ground without culture and protection.

"It is only however in the present age that man has begun to reap the fruits of his tedious education, and has proven how much 'knowledge is power.' Hehas now acquired a dominion over the material world, and a consequent power of increase, so as to render it probable that the whole surface of the earth may soon be overrun by this engrossing anomaly, to the annihilation of every wonderful and beautiful variety of animal existence which does not administer to his wants, principally as laboratories of preparation to befit cruder elemental matter for assimilation by his organs.

. . . . . . . . . . .

Back to Index Next