Packard, who has studied his writings with care, says that he was an evolutionist through all periods of his life, not, as is commonly maintained, believing first in the fixity of species, later in their changeability, and lastly returning to his earlier position. "The impression left on the mind after reading Buffon is that even if he threw out these suggestions and then retracted them, from fear of annoyance or even persecution from the bigots of his time, he did not himself always take them seriously, but rather jotted them down as passing thoughts. Certainly he did not present them in the formal, forcible, and scientific way that Erasmus Darwin did. The result is that the tentative views of Buffon, which have to be with much research extracted from the forty-four volumes of his works, would now be regarded as in a degree superficial and valueless. But they appeared thirty-four years before Lamarck's theory, and though not epoch-making, they are such as will render the name of Buffon memorable for all time." (Packard.)
Fig. 117.—Erasmus Darwin, 1731-1802.
Erasmus Darwin (Fig. 117) was the greatest of Lamarck's predecessors. In 1794 he published the Zoönomia. In this work he stated ten principles; among them he vaguely suggested the transmission of acquired characteristics, the law of sexual selection—or the law of battle, as he called it—protective coloration, etc. His work received some notice from scholars. Paley's Natural Theology, for illustration, was written against it, although Paley is careful not to mention Darwin or his work. The success of Paley's book is probably one of the chief causes for the neglect into which the views of Buffon and Erasmus Darwin fell.
Inasmuch as Darwin's conclusions were published before Lamarck's book, it would be interesting to determine whether or not Lamarck was influenced by him. The careful consideration of this matter leads to the conclusion that Lamarck drew his inspiration directly from nature, and that points of similarity between his views and those of Erasmus Darwin are to be looked upon as an example of parallelism in thought. It is altogether likely that Lamarck was wholly unacquainted with Darwin's work, which had been published in England.
Goethe's connection with the rise of evolutionary thought is in a measure incidental. In 1790 he published his Metamorphosis of Plants, showing that flowers are modified leaves. This doctrine of metamorphosis of parts he presently applied to the animal kingdom, and brought forward his famous, but erroneous, vertebrate theory of the skull. As he meditated on the extent of modifications there arose in his mind the conviction that all plants and animals have been evolved from the modification of a few parental types. Accordingly he should be accorded a place in the history of evolutionary thought.
Opposition to Lamarck's Views.—Lamarck's doctrine, which was published in definite form in 1809, has been already outlined. We may well inquire, Why did not his views take hold? In the first place, they were not accepted by Cuvier. Cuvier's opposition was strong and vigorous, and succeeded in causing the theory of Lamarck to be completely neglected by the French people. Again, we must recognize that the time was not ripe for the acceptance of such truths; and, finally, that there was no great principle enunciated by Lamarck which could be readily understood as there was in Darwin's book on the doctrine of natural selection.
The temporary disappearance of the doctrine of organic evolution which occurred after Lamarck expounded his theory was also owing to the reaction against the speculations of the school of Natur-Philosophie. The extravagant speculation of Oken and the other representatives of this school completely disgusted men who were engaged in research by observation and experiment. The reaction against that school was so strong that it was difficult to get a hearing for any theoretical speculation; but Cuvier's influence must be looked upon as the chief one in causing disregard for Lamarck's writings.
The work of Cuvier has been already considered in connection both with comparative anatomy and zoölogy, but a few points must still be held under consideration. Cuvier brought forward the idea of catastrophism in order to explain the disappearance of the groups of fossil animals. He believed in the doctrine of spontaneous generation. He held to the doctrine of pre-delineation, so that it must be admitted that whenever he forsook observation for speculation he was singularly unhappy, and it is undeniable that his position of hostility in reference to the speculation of Lamarck retarded the progress of science for nearly half a century.