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Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution

A >> Alpheus Spring Packard >> Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution




He then points out the gradation which exists from the most simple
animal up to the most composite, since from the monad, which, so to
speak, is only an animated point, up to the mammals, and from them up to
man, there is evidently a shaded gradation in the structure of all the
animals. So also among the plants there is a graduated series from the
simplest, such as _Mucor viridescens_, up to the most complicated plant.
But he hastens to say that by this regular gradation in the complication
of the organization he does not mean to infer the existence of a linear
series, with regular intervals between the species and genera:

"Such a series does not exist; but I speak of a series almost
regularly graduated in the principal groups (_masses_) such as the
great families; series most assuredly existing, both among animals
and among plants, but which, as regards genera and especially
species, form in many places lateral ramifications, whose
extremities offer truly isolated points."

This is the first time in the history of biological science that we have
stated in so scientific, broad, and modern form the essential
principles of evolution. Lamarck insists that time without limit and
favorable conditions are the two principal means or factors in the
production of plants and animals. Under the head of favorable conditions
he enumerates variations in climate, temperature, the action of the
environment, the diversity of local causes, change of habits, movement,
action, variation in means of living, of preservation of life, of means
of defence, and varying modes of reproduction. As the result of the
action of these different factors, the faculties of animals, developed
and strengthened by use, become diversified by the new habits, so that
by slow degrees the new structures and organs thus arising become
preserved and transmitted by heredity.

In this address it should be noticed that nothing is said of willing and
of internal feeling, which have been so much misunderstood and
ridiculed, or of the direct or indirect action of the environment. He
does speak of the bird as wishing to strike the water, but this,
liberally interpreted, is as much a physiological impulse as a mental
desire. No reference also is made to geographical isolation, a factor
which he afterwards briefly mentioned.

Although Lamarck does not mention the principle of selection, he refers
in the following way to competition, or at least to the checks on the
too rapid multiplication of the lower invertebrates:

"So were it not for the immense consumption as food which is made in
nature of animals which compose the lower orders of the animal
kingdom, these animals would soon overpower and perhaps destroy, by
their enormous numbers, the more highly organized and perfect
animals which compose the first classes and the first orders of this
kingdom, so great is the difference in the means and facility of
multiplying between the two.

"But nature has anticipated the dangerous effects of this vast power
of reproduction and multiplication. She has prevented it on the one
hand by considerably limiting the duration of life of these beings
so simply organized which compose the lower classes, and especially
the lowest orders of the animal kingdom. On the other hand, both by
making these animals the prey of each other, thus incessantly
reducing their numbers, and also by determining through the
diversity of climates the localities where they could exist, and by
the variety of seasons--_i.e._, by the influences of different
atmospheric conditions--the time during which they could maintain
their existence.

"By means of these wise precautions of nature everything is well
balanced and in order. Individuals multiply, propagate, and die in
different ways. No species predominates up to the point of effecting
the extinction of another, except, perhaps, in the highest classes,
where the multiplication of the individuals is slow and difficult;
and as the result of this state of things we conceive that in
general species are preserved" (p. 22).

Here we have in anticipation the doctrine of Malthus, which, as will be
remembered, so much impressed Charles Darwin, and led him in part to
work out his principle of natural selection.

The author then taking up other subjects, first asserts that among the
changes that animals and plants unceasingly bring about by their
production and _debris_, it is not the largest and most perfect animals
which have caused the most considerable changes, but rather the coral
polyps, etc.[165] He then, after dilating on the value of the study of
the invertebrate animals, proceeds to define them, and closes his
lecture by describing the seven classes into which he divides this
group.


II. _Recherches sur l'Organisation des Corps vivans, 1802 (Opening
Discourse)._

The following is an abstract with translations of the most important
passages relating to evolution:

That the portion of the animal kingdom treated in these lectures
comprises more species than all the other groups taken together is,
however, the least of those considerations which should interest my
hearers.

"It is the group containing the most curious forms, the richest in
marvels of every kind, the most astonishing, especially from the
singular facts of organization that they present, though it is that
hitherto the least considered under these grand points of view.

"How much better than learning the names and characters of all the
species is it to learn of the origin, relation, and mode of
existence of all the natural productions with which we are
surrounded.


"_First Part: Progress in structure of living beings in proportion
as circumstances favor them._

"When we give continued attention to the examination of the
organization of different living beings, to that of different
systems which this organization presents in each organic kingdom,
finally to certain changes which are seen to be undergone in certain
circumstances, we are convinced:

"1. That the nature of organic movement is not only to develop the
organization but also to multiply the organs and to fulfil the
functions, and that at the outset this organic movement continually
tends to restrict to functions special to certain parts the
functions which were at first general--_i.e._, common to all parts
of the body;

"2. That the result of _nutrition_ is not only to supply to the
developing organization what the organic movement tends to form, but
besides, also by a forced inequality between the matters which are
assimilated and those which are dissipated by losses, this function
at a certain term of the duration of life causes a progressive
deterioration of the organs, so that as a necessary consequence it
inevitably causes death;

"3. That the property of the movement of the fluids in the parts
which contain them is to break out passages, places of deposit, and
outlets; to there create canals and consequently different organs;
to cause these canals, as well as the organs, to vary on account of
the diversity both of the movements and of the nature of the fluids
which give rise to them; finally to enlarge, elongate, to gradually
divide and solidify [the walls of] these canals and these organs by
the matters which form and incessantly separate the fluids which are
there in movement, and one part of which is assimilated and added to
the organs, while the other is rejected and cast out;

"4. That the state of organization in each organism has been
gradually acquired by the progress of the influences of the movement
of fluids, and by those changes that these fluids have there
continually undergone in their nature and their condition through
the habitual succession of their losses and of their renewals;

"5. That each organization and each form acquired by this course of
things and by the circumstances which there have concurred, were
preserved and transmitted successively by generation [heredity]
until new modifications of these organizations and of these forms
have been acquired by the same means and by new circumstances;

"6. Finally, that from the uninterrupted concurrence of these causes
or from these laws of nature, together with much time and with an
almost inconceivable diversity of influential circumstances, organic
beings of all the orders have been successively formed.

"Considerations so extraordinary, relatively to the ideas that the
vulgar have generally formed on the nature and origin of living
bodies, will be naturally regarded by you as stretches of the
imagination unless I hasten to lay before you some observations and
facts which supply the most complete evidence.

"From the point of view of knowledge based on observation the
philosophic naturalist feels convinced that it is in that which is
called the lowest classes of the two organic kingdoms--_i.e._, in
those which comprise the most simply organized beings--that we can
collect facts the most luminous and observations the most decisive
on the _production_ and the reproduction of the living beings in
question; on the causes of the formation of the organs of these
wonderful beings; and on those of their developments, of their
diversity and their multiplicity, which increase with the concourse
of generations, of times, and of influential circumstances.

"Hence we may be assured that it is only among the singular beings
of these lowest classes, and especially in the lowest orders of
these classes, that it is possible to find on both sides the
primitive germs of life, and consequently the germs of the most
important faculties of animality and vegetality."


_Modification of the organization from one end to the other of the
animal chain._

"One is forced," he says, "to recognize that the totality of existing
animals constitute _a series of groups_ forming a true chain, and that
there exists from one end to the other of this chain a gradual
modification in the structure of the animals composing it, as also a
proportionate diminution in the number of faculties of these animals
from the highest to the lowest (the first germs), these being without
doubt the form with which nature began, with the aid of much time and
favorable circumstances, to form all the others."

He then begins with the mammals and descends to molluscs, annelids, and
insects, down to the polyps, "as it is better to proceed from the known
to the unknown;" but farther on (p. 38) he finally remarks:

"Ascend from the most simple to the most compound, depart from the
most imperfect animalcule and ascend along the scale up to the
animal richest in structure and faculties; constantly preserve the
order of relation in the group, then you will hold the true thread
which connects all the productions of nature; you will have a just
idea of its progress, and you will be convinced that the most simple
of its living productions have successively given existence to all
the others.

"_The series which constitutes the animal scale resides in the
distribution of the groups, and not in that of the individuals and
species._

"I have already said[166] that by this shaded graduation in the
complication of structure I do not mean to speak of the existence
of a linear and regular series of species or even genera: such a
series does not exist. But I speak of a quite regularly graduated
series in the principal groups, _i.e._, in the principal system of
organizations known, which give rise to classes and to great
families, series most assuredly existing both among animals and
plants, although in the consideration of genera, and especially in
that of species, it offers many lateral ramifications whose
extremities are truly isolated points.

"However, although there has been denied, in a very modern work, the
existence in the animal kingdom of a single series, natural and at
the same time graduated, in the composition of the organization of
beings which it comprehends, series in truth necessarily formed of
groups subordinated to each other as regards structure and not of
isolated species or genera, I ask where is the well-informed
naturalist who would now present a different order in the
arrangement of the twelve classes of the animal kingdom of which I
have just given an account?

"I have already stated what I think of this view, which has seemed
sublime to some moderns, and indorsed by _Professor Hermann_."

Each distinct group or mass of forms has, he says, its peculiar system
of essential organs, but each organ considered by itself does not follow
as regular a course in its degradations (modifications).

"Indeed, the least important organs, or those least essential to
life, are not always in relation to each other in their improvement
or their degradation; and an organ which in one species is atrophied
may be very perfect in another. These irregular variations in the
perfecting and in the degradation of non-essential organs are due to
the fact that these organs are oftener than the others submitted to
the influences of external circumstances, and give rise to a
diversity of species so considerable and so singularly ordered that
instead of being able to arrange them, like the groups, in a single
simple linear series under the form of a regular graduated scale,
these very species often form around the groups of which they are
part lateral ramifications, the extremities of which offer points
truly isolated.

"There is needed, in order to change each internal system of
organization, a combination of more influential circumstances, and
of more prolonged duration than to alter and modify the external
organs.

"I have observed, however, that, when circumstances demand, nature
passes from one system to another without making a leap, provided
they are allies. It is, indeed, by this faculty that she has come to
form them all in succession, in proceeding from the simple to the
more complex.

"It is so true that she has the power, that she passes from one
system to the other, not only in two different families which are
allied, but she also passes from one system to the other in the same
individual.

"The systems of organization which admit as organs of respiration
true lungs are nearer to systems which admit gills than those which
require tracheae. Thus not only does nature pass from gills to lungs
in allied classes and families, as seen in fishes and reptiles, but
in the latter she passes even during the life of the same
individual, which successively possesses each system. We know that
the frog in the tadpole state respires by gills, while in the more
perfect state of frog it respires by lungs. We never see that nature
passes from a system with tracheae to a system with lungs.

"_It is not the organs, i.e., the nature and form of the parts of
the body of an animal, which give rise to the special habits and
faculties, but, on the contrary, its habits, its mode of life, and
the circumstances in which individuals are placed, which have, with
time, brought about the form of its body, the number and condition
of its organs, finally the faculties which it possesses._

* * * * *

"Time and favorable circumstances are the two principal means which
nature employs to give existence to all her productions. We know
that time has for her no limit, and that consequently she has it
always at her disposition.

"As to the circumstances of which she has need (_besoin_) and which
she employs every day to bring about variations in all that she
continues to produce, we can say that they are in her in some degree
inexhaustible.

"The principal ones arise from the influence of climate, from that
of different temperatures, of the atmosphere, and from all
environing surroundings (_milieux_); from that of the diversity of
places and their situations; from that of the most ordinary habitual
movements, of actions the most frequent; finally from that of the
means of preservation, of the mode of life, of defence, of
reproduction, etc.

"Moreover, as the result of these different influences the faculties
increase and strengthen themselves by use, diversify themselves by
the new habits preserved through long periods, and insensibly the
conformation, the consistence--in a word, the nature and state of
the parts and also of the organs--consequently participate in all
these influences, are preserved and propagate themselves by
generation" (_Systeme des Animaux sans Vertebres_, p. 12).

* * * * *

"It is easy for any one to see that the habit of exercising an organ
in every living being which has not reached the term of diminution
of its faculties not only makes this organ more perfect, but even
makes it acquire developments and dimensions which insensibly change
it, with the result that with time it renders it very different from
the same organ considered in another organism which has not, or has
but slightly, exercised it. It is also very easy to prove that the
constant lack of exercise of an organ gradually reduces it and ends
by atrophying it."

Then follow the facts regarding the mole, spalax, ant-eater, and the
lack of teeth in birds, the origin of shore birds, swimming birds and
perching birds, which are stated farther on.

"Thus the efforts in any direction, maintained for a long time or
made habitually by certain parts of a living body, to satisfy the
needs called out (_exiges_) by nature or by circumstances, develop
these parts and cause them to acquire dimensions and a form which
they never would have obtained if these efforts had not become an
habitual action of the animals which have exercised them.
Observations made on all the animals known would furnish examples of
this.

"When the will determines an animal to any kind of action, the
organs whose function it is to execute this action are then
immediately provoked by the flowing there of subtile fluids, which
become the determining cause of movements which perform the action
in question. A multitude of observations support this fact, which
now no one would doubt.

"It results from this that multiplied repetitions of these acts of
organization strengthen, extend, develop, and even create the organs
which are there needed. It is only necessary to closely observe that
which is everywhere happening in this respect to firmly convince
ourselves of this cause of developments and organic changes.

"However, each change acquired in an organ by habitual use
sufficient to have formed (_opere_) it is preserved by generation,
if it is common to the individuals which unite in the reproduction
of their kind. Finally, this change propagates itself and is then
handed down (_se passe_) to all the individuals which succeed and
which are submitted to the same circumstances, without their having
been obliged to acquire it by the means which have really created
it.

"Besides, in the unions between the sexes the intermixtures between
individuals which have different qualities or forms are necessarily
opposed to the constant propagation of these qualities and forms. We
see that which in man, who is exposed to such different
circumstances which influence individuals, prevents the qualities of
accidental defects which they have happened to acquire from being
preserved and propagated by heredity (_generation_).

"You can now understand how, by such means and an inexhaustible
diversity of circumstances, nature, with sufficient length of time,
has been able to and should produce all these results.

"If I should choose here to pass in review all the classes, orders,
genera, and species of animals in existence I could make you see
that the structure of individuals and their organs, faculties, etc.,
is solely the result of circumstances to which each species and all
its races have been subjected by nature, and of habits that the
individuals of this species have been obliged to contract.

"The influences of localities and of temperatures are so striking
that naturalists have not hesitated to recognize the effects on the
structure, the developments, and the faculties of the living bodies
subject to them.

"We have long known that the animals inhabiting the torrid zone are
very different from those which live in the other zones. Buffon has
remarked that even in latitudes almost the same the animals of the
new continent are not the same as those of the old.

"Finally the Count Lacepede, wishing to give to this well-founded
fact the precision which he believed it susceptible, has traced
twenty-six zooelogical divisions on the dry parts of the globe, and
eighteen over the ocean; but there are many other influences than
those which depend on localities and temperatures.

"Everything tends, then, to prove my assertion--namely, that it is
not the form either of the body or of its parts which has given rise
to habits and to the mode of life of animals, but, on the contrary,
it is the habits, the mode of life, and all the other influential
circumstances which have with time produced the form of the bodies
and organs of animals. With new forms new faculties have been
acquired, and gradually nature has arrived at the state where we
actually see it.

* * * * *

"Finally as it is only at that extremity of the animal kingdom where
occur the most simply organized animals that we meet those which may
be regarded as the true germs of animality, and it is the same at
the same end of the vegetable series; is it not at this end of the
scale, both animal and vegetable, that nature has commenced and
recommenced without ceasing the first germ of her living production?
Who is there, in a word, who does not see that the process of
perfection of those of these first germs which circumstances have
favored will gradually and after the lapse of time give rise to all
the degrees of perfection and of the composition of the
organization, from which will result this multiplicity and this
diversity of living beings of all orders with which the exterior
surface of our globe is almost everywhere filled or covered?

"Indeed, if the manner (_usage_) of life tends to develop the
organization, and even to form and multiply the organs, as the state
of an animal which has just been born proves it, compared to that
where it finds itself when it has reached the term where its organs
(beginning to deteriorate) cease to make new developments; if, then,
each particular organ undergoes remarkable changes, according as it
is exercised and according to the manner of which I have shown you
some examples, you will understand that in carrying you to the end
of the animal chain where are found the most simple organizations,
and that in considering among these organizations those whose
simplicity is so great that they lie at the very door of the
creative power of nature, then this same nature--that is to say, the
state of things which exist--has been to form directly the first
beginnings of organization; she has been able, consequently, by the
manner of life and the aid of circumstances which favor its
duration, to progressively render perfect its work, and to carry it
to the point where we now see it.

"Time is wanting to present to you the series of results of my
researches on this interesting subject, and to develop--

"1. What really is life.

"2. How nature herself creates the first traces of organization in
appropriate groups where it had not existed.

"3. How the organic or vital movement is excited by it and held
together with the aid of a stimulating and active cause which she
has at her disposal in abundance in certain climates and in certain
seasons of the year.

"4. Finally, how this organic movement, by the influence of its
duration and by that of the multitude of circumstances which modify
its effects, develops, arranges, and gradually complicates the
organs of the living body which possesses them.

"Such has been without doubt the will of the infinite wisdom which
reigns throughout nature; and such is effectively the order of
things clearly indicated by the observation of all the facts which
relate to them." (End of the opening discourse.)


APPENDIX (p. 141).

_On Species in Living Bodies._

"I have for a long time thought that _species_ were constant in
nature, and that they were constituted by the individuals which
belong to each of them.

"I am now convinced that I was in error in this respect, and that in
reality only individuals exist in nature.

"The origin of this error, which I have shared with many naturalists
who still hold it, arises from _the long duration_, in relation to
us, _of the same state of things_ in each place which each organism
inhabits; but this duration of the same state of things for each
place has its limits, and with much time it makes changes in each
point of the surface of the globe, which produces changes in every
kind of circumstances for the organisms which inhabit it.

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