The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection (6th ed) | Page 4

Wheresoever, therefore, all things
together (that is all the parts of one whole) happened like as if they

were made for the sake of something, these were preserved, having
been appropriately constituted by an internal spontaneity; and
whatsoever things were not thus constituted, perished and still perish."
We here see the principle of natural selection shadowed forth, but how
little Aristotle fully comprehended the principle, is shown by his
remarks on the formation of the teeth.), the first author who in modern
times has treated it in a scientific spirit was Buffon. But as his opinions
fluctuated greatly at different periods, and as he does not enter on the
causes or means of the transformation of species, I need not here enter
on details.
Lamarck was the first man whose conclusions on the subject excited
much attention. This justly celebrated naturalist first published his
views in 1801; he much enlarged them in 1809 in his "Philosophie
Zoologique", and subsequently, 1815, in the Introduction to his "Hist.
Nat. des Animaux sans Vertebres". In these works he up holds the
doctrine that all species, including man, are descended from other
species. He first did the eminent service of arousing attention to the
probability of all change in the organic, as well as in the inorganic
world, being the result of law, and not of miraculous interposition.
Lamarck seems to have been chiefly led to his conclusion on the
gradual change of species, by the difficulty of distinguishing species
and varieties, by the almost perfect gradation of forms in certain groups,
and by the analogy of domestic productions. With respect to the means
of modification, he attributed something to the direct action of the
physical conditions of life, something to the crossing of already
existing forms, and much to use and disuse, that is, to the effects of
habit. To this latter agency he seems to attribute all the beautiful
adaptations in nature; such as the long neck of the giraffe for browsing
on the branches of trees. But he likewise believed in a law of
progressive development, and as all the forms of life thus tend to
progress, in order to account for the existence at the present day of
simple productions, he maintains that such forms are now
spontaneously generated. (I have taken the date of the first publication
of Lamarck from Isidore Geoffroy Saint- Hilaire's ("Hist. Nat.
Generale", tom. ii. page 405, 1859) excellent history of opinion on this
subject. In this work a full account is given of Buffon's conclusions on

the same subject. It is curious how largely my grandfather, Dr. Erasmus
Darwin, anticipated the views and erroneous grounds of opinion of
Lamarck in his "Zoonomia" (vol. i. pages 500-510), published in 1794.
According to Isid. Geoffroy there is no doubt that Goethe was an
extreme partisan of similar views, as shown in the introduction to a
work written in 1794 and 1795, but not published till long afterward; he
has pointedly remarked ("Goethe als Naturforscher", von Dr. Karl
Meding, s. 34) that the future question for naturalists will be how, for
instance, cattle got their horns and not for what they are used. It is
rather a singular instance of the manner in which similar views arise at
about the same time, that Goethe in Germany, Dr. Darwin in England,
and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (as we shall immediately see) in France,
came to the same conclusion on the origin of species, in the years
1794-5.)
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, as is stated in his "Life", written by his son,
suspected, as early as 1795, that what we call species are various
degenerations of the same type. It was not until 1828 that he published
his conviction that the same forms have not been perpetuated since the
origin of all things. Geoffroy seems to have relied chiefly on the
conditions of life, or the "monde ambiant" as the cause of change. He
was cautious in drawing conclusions, and did not believe that existing
species are now undergoing modification; and, as his son adds, "C'est
donc un probleme a reserver entierement a l'avenir, suppose meme que
l'avenir doive avoir prise sur lui."
In 1813 Dr. W.C. Wells read before the Royal Society "An Account of
a White Female, part of whose skin resembles that of a Negro"; but his
paper was not published until his famous "Two Essays upon Dew and
Single Vision" appeared in 1818. In this paper he distinctly recognises
the principle of natural selection, and this is the first recognition which
has been indicated; but he applies it only to the races of man, and to
certain characters alone. After remarking that negroes and mulattoes
enjoy an immunity from certain tropical diseases, he observes, firstly,
that all animals tend to vary in some degree, and, secondly, that
agriculturists improve their domesticated