Linnæus believed in fixity of species, but had doubts about the Biblical account. As a naturalist, he found it difficult to credit the exceptional nature of a country which had supplied the wants of zoological species as opposed to one another as the polar bear and the tropical hippopotamus. Buffon ascribed the variations of man to the influence of climate and diet. Though Prichard and Lawrence both denied the possibility of the transmission of acquired characters, Prichard believed that the transmission of occasional variations might, to some extent, account for the diversities of races.[[36]] Lawrence wrote more clearly: “Racial differences can be explained only by two principles—namely, the occasional production of an offspring with different characters from those of the parents, as a native or congenital variety; and the propagation of such varieties by generation.” He considered that domestication favoured the production of these congenital and transmissible variations, and, anticipating the Eugenic school, deplored the fact that, while so much care and attention was paid to the breeding of domestic animals, the breeding of man was left to the vagaries of his own individual fancy.

[36]. In an essay entitled “A Remarkable Anticipation of Modern Views on Evolution,” Professor E. B. Poulton draws attention to the ideas expressed in the first and second editions of the Researches, by Prichard, “one of the most remarkable and clear-sighted of the predecessors of Darwin and Wallace.... It is an anomaly that such works as the Vestiges should attract attention, while Prichard’s keen insight, sound judgment, and balanced reasoning on many aspects of organic evolution, and especially on the scope of heredity, should remain unknown.” Essays on Evolution, 1908, pp. 192, 175.

Lawrence.

Sir William Lawrence (1783-1867) was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Surgery to the Royal College of Surgeons at the early age of thirty-two. His lectures on “Comparative Anatomy, Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man,” delivered between 1816 and 1818, raised an immediate outcry; and the author (to use his own words) was charged “with the unworthy design of propagating opinions detrimental to society, and of endeavouring to enforce them for the purpose of loosening those restraints in which the welfare of mankind exists.” Lawrence was forced to bow before the storm of abuse, and announce publicly that the volumes had been suppressed, as he was refused copyright. It is interesting to note that these lectures are among those at present recommended for the use of students of Anthropology.

Lawrence was far in advance of his time, and much of his teaching may be said to have anticipated the doctrine of evolution. Unfortunately, the theological protest raised by his lectures—published when he was only thirty-five—resulted in his forsaking Anthropology altogether, and he henceforward devoted himself entirely to anatomy and surgery.

Lord Monboddo.

Another prophet in advance of his times was Lord Monboddo. James Burnett Monboddo (1714-1799) was regarded as one of the most eccentric characters of the eighteenth century, mainly on account of his peculiar views about the origin of society and of language, and his theories as to the relationship of man with the monkeys. He was deeply interested in all the current accounts of “tailed men,” thus justifying Dr. Johnson’s remark that he was “as jealous of his tail as a squirrel.” Later students of his writings are less struck by these eccentricities, which afforded endless jests to the wags of the age, than by his scientific methods of investigation and his acute conclusions. He not only studied man as one of the animals, but he also studied savages with a view to elucidating the origin of civilisation.

Many other pre-Darwinian evolutionists might be mentioned, but Professor Lovejoy’s caution must be noted:—

The premature adoption of a hypothesis is a sin against the scientific spirit; and the chance acceptance by some enthusiast of a truth in which, at the time, he has no sound reason for believing, by no means entitles him to any place of honour in the history of science.[[37]]

[37]. Pop. Sci. Monthly, 1909, p. 499.