Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution

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"In _Mya arenaria_ we find a highly elongated siphon. In the young
the siphon hardly extends beyond the borders of the valves, and then
the animal lives at or close to the surface. In progressive growth,
as the animal burrows deeper, the siphon elongates, until it attains
a length many times the total length of the valves.

"The ontogeny of the individual and the paleontology of the family
both show that Mya came from a form with a very abbreviated siphon,
and it seems evident that the long siphon of this genus was brought
about by the effort to reach the surface induced by the habit of
deep burial."

"The tendency to equalize the form of growth in a horizontal plane,
or the geomalic tendency of Professor Hyatt,[262] is seen markedly
in pelecypods. In forms which crawl on the free borders of the
valves, the right and left growth in relation to the perpendicular
is obvious, and agrees with the right and left sides of the animal.
In Pecten the animal at rest lies on the right valve, and swims or
flies with the right valve lowermost. Here equalization to the right
and left of the perpendicular line passing through the centre of
gravity is very marked (especially in the Vola division of the
group); but the induced right and left aspect corresponds to the
dorsal and ventral sides of the animal, not the right and left
sides, as in the former case. Lima, a near ally of Pecten, swims
with the edges of the valves perpendicular. In this case the
geomalic growth corresponds to the right and left sides of the
animal.

"The oyster has a deep or spoon-shaped attached valve, and a flat or
flatter free valve. This form, or a modification of it, we find to
be characteristic of all pelecypods which are attached to a foreign
object of support by the cementation of one valve. All are highly
modified, and are strikingly different from the normal form seen in
locomotive types of the group. The oyster may be taken as the type
of the form adopted by attached pelecypods. The two valves are
unequal, the attached valve being concave, the free valve flat; but
they are not only unequal, they are often very dissimilar--as
different as if they belonged to a distinct type in what would be
considered typical forms. This is remarkable as a case of acquired
and inherited characteristics finding very different expression in
the two valves of a group belonging to a class typically
equivalvular. The attached valve is the most highly modified, and
the free is least modified, retaining more fully ancestral
characters. Therefore, it is to the free young before fixation takes
place and to the free, least-modified valve that we must turn in
tracing genetic relations of attached groups. Another characteristic
of attached pelecypods is camerated structure, which is most
frequent and extensive in the thick attached valve. The form as
above described is characteristic of the Ostreidae, Hinnites,
Spondylus, and Plicatula, Dimya, Pernostrea, Aetheria, and Mulleria;
and Chama and its near allies. These various genera, though
ostreiform in the adult, are equivalvular and of totally different
form in the free young. The several types cited are from widely
separated families of pelecypods, yet all, under the same given
conditions, adopt a closely similar form, which is strong proof that
common forces acting on all alike have induced the resulting form.
What the forces are that have induced this form it is not easy to
see from the study of this form alone; but the ostrean form is the
base of a series, from the summit of which we get a clearer view."
(_Amer. Nat._, pp. 18-20.)

Here we see, plainly brought out by Jackson's researches, that the
Lamarckian factors of change of environment and consequently of habit,
effort, use and disuse, or mechanical strains resulting in the
modifications of some, and even the appearance of new organs, as the
adductor muscles, have originated new characters which are peculiar to
the class, and thus a new class has been originated. The mollusca,
indeed, show to an unusual extent the influence of a change in
environment and of use and disuse in the formation of classes.

Lang's treatment, in his _Text-book of Comparative Anatomy_ (1888), of
the subjects of the musculature of worms and crustacea, and of the
mechanism of the motion of the segmented body in the Arthropoda, is of
much value in relation to the mechanical genesis of the body segments
and limbs of the members of this type. Dr. B. Sharp has also discussed
the same subject (_American Naturalist_, 1893, p. 89), also Graber in
his works, while the present writer in his _Text-book of Entomology_
(1898) has attempted to treat of the mechanical origin of the segments
of insects, and of the limbs and their jointed structure, along the
lines laid down by Herbert Spencer, Lang, Sharp, and Graber.

W. Roux[263] has inquired how natural selection could have determined
the special orientation of the sheets of spongy tissue of bone. He
contends that the selection of accidental variation could not originate
species, because such variations are isolated, and because, to
constitute a real advantage, they should rest on several characters
taken together. His example is the transformation of aquatic into
terrestrial animals.

G. Pfeffer[264] opposes the efficacy of natural selection, as do C.
Emery[265] and O. Hertwig. The essence of Hertwig's _The Biological
Problem of To-day_ (1894) is that "in obedience to different external
influences the same rudiments may give rise to different adult
structures" (p. 128). Delage, in his _Theories sur l'Heredite_,
summarizes under seven heads the objections of these distinguished
biologists. Species arise, he says, from general variations, due to
change in the conditions of life, such as food, climate, use and disuse,
very rarely individual variations, such as sports or aberrations, which
are more or less the result of disease.

Mention should also be made of the essays and works of H. Driesch,[266]
De Varigny,[267] Danilewsky,[268] Verworn,[269] Davenport,[270]
Gadow,[271] and others.

In his address on "Neodarwinism and Neolamarckism," Mr. Lester F. Ward,
the palaeobotanist, says:

"I shall be obliged to confine myself almost exclusively to the one
great mind, who far more than all others combined paved the way for
the new science of biology to be founded by Darwin, namely,
Lamarck." After showing that Lamarck established the functional, or
what we would call the dynamic factors, he goes on to say that
"Lamarck, although he clearly grasped the law of competition, or the
struggle for existence, the law of adaptation, or the correspondence
of the organism to the changing environment, the transmutation of
species, and the genealogical descent of all organic beings, the
more complex from the more simple; he nevertheless failed to
conceive the selective principle as formulated by Darwin and
Wallace, which so admirably complemented these great laws."[272]

As is well known, Huxley was, if we understand his expressions aright,
not fully convinced of the entire adequacy of natural selection.

"There is no fault to be found with Mr. Darwin's method, then; but
it is another question whether he has fulfilled all the conditions
imposed by that method. Is it satisfactorily proved, in fact, that
species may be originated by selection? that there is such a thing
as natural selection? that none of the phenomena exhibited by
species are inconsistent with the origin of species in this way?

* * * * *

"After much consideration, with assuredly no bias against
Mr. Darwin's views, it is our clear conviction that, as the evidence
stands, it is not absolutely proven that a group of animals, having
all the characters exhibited by species in nature, has ever been
originated by selection, whether artificial or natural. Groups
having the morphological character of species, distinct and
permanent races, in fact, have been so produced over and over again;
but there is no positive evidence, at present, that any group of
animals has, by variation and selective breeding, given rise to
another group which was even in the least degree infertile with the
first. Mr. Darwin is perfectly aware of this weak point, and brings
forward a multitude of ingenious and important arguments to diminish
the force of the objection."[273]

We have cited the foregoing conclusions and opinions of upwards of forty
working biologists, many of whom were brought up, so to speak, in the
Darwinian faith, to show that the pendulum of evolutionary thought is
swinging away from the narrow and restricted conception of natural
selection, pure and simple, as the sole or most important factor, and
returning in the direction of Lamarckism.

We may venture to say of Lamarck what Huxley once said of Descartes,
that he expressed "the thoughts which will be everybody's two or three
centuries after" him. Only the change of belief, due to the rapid
accumulation of observed facts, has come in a period shorter than "two
or three centuries;" for, at the end of the very century in which
Lamarck, whatever his crudities, vagueness, and lack of observations and
experiments, published his views, wherein are laid the foundations on
which natural selection rests, the consensus of opinion as to the direct
and indirect influence of the environment, and the inadequacy of natural
selection as an initial factor, was becoming stronger and deeper-rooted
each year.

We must never forget or underestimate, however, the inestimable value of
the services rendered by Darwin, who by his patience, industry, and rare
genius for observation and experiment, and his powers of lucid
exposition, convinced the world of the truth of evolution, with the
result that it has transformed the philosophy of our day. We are all of
us evolutionists, though we may differ as to the nature of the efficient
causes.

FOOTNOTES:

[204] Vol. ii., p. 167, 1871.

[205] Vol. ii., p. 195.

[206] Vol. i., Sec. 166, p. 456.

[207] _The Factors of Organic Evolution_, 1895, p. 460.

[208] _Schoepfungegeschichte_, 1868. _The History of Creation_, New York,
ii., p. 355.

[209] Alcide d'Orbigny, _Paleontologie francaise_, Paris, 1840-59.

[210] Abstract in Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History,
xvii., December 16, 1874.

[211] _Zeitschr. der deutsch. geol. Gesellschaft_, 1875.

[212] _Palaeontologica Indica_. Jurassic Fauna of Kutch. I. Cephalopoda,
pp. 242-243. (See Hyatt's _Genesis of the Arietidae_, pp. 27, 42.)

[213] "Genera of Fossil Cephalopods," Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist.,
xxii., April 4, 1883, p. 265.

[214] "Revision of the North American Poriferae." Memoirs Bost. Soc. Nat.
Hist., ii., part iv., 1877.

[215] _Three Cruises of the "Blake,"_ 1888, ii., p. 158.

[216] The earliest paper in which he adopted the Lamarckian doctrines of
use and effort was his "Methods of Creation of Organic Types" (1871). In
this paper Cope remarks that he "has never read Lamarck in French, nor
seen a statement of his theory in English, except the very slight
notices in the _Origin of Species_ and _Chambers' Encyclopaedia_, the
latter subsequent to the first reading of this paper." It is interesting
to see how thoroughly Lamarckian Cope was in his views on the descent
theory.

[217] Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, Troy meeting, 1870. Printed in August, 1871.

[218] _American Naturalist_, v., December, 1871, p. 750. See also
pp. 751, 759, 760.

[219] Printed in advance, being chapter xiii. of _Our Common Insects_,
Salem, 1873, pp. 172, 174, 179, 180, 181, 185.

[220] "A New Cave Fauna in Utah." _Bulletin of the United States
Geological Survey_, iii., April 9, 1877, p. 167.

[221] Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, iv., 1888, pp. 156:
27 plates. See also _American Naturalist_, Sept., 1888, xxii., p. 808,
and Sept., 1894, xxviii., p. 333.

[222] Carl H. Eigenmann, in his elaborate memoir, _The Eyes of the
Blind Vertebrates of North America (Archiv fuer Entwickelungsmechanik der
Organismen_, 1899, viii.), concludes that the Lamarckian view, that
through disuse and the transmission by heredity of the characters thus
inherited the eyes of blind fishes are diminished, "is the only view so
far examined that does not on the face of it present serious objections"
(pp. 605-609).

[223] "Hints on the Evolution of the Bristles, Spines, and Tubercles of
Certain Caterpillars, etc." Proceedings Boston Society of Natural
History, xxiv., 1890, pp. 493-560; 2 plates.

[224] E. J. Marey: "Le Transformisme et la Physiologie Experimentale,
Cours du College de France," _Revue Scientifique_, 2^me serie, iv.,
p. 818. (Function makes the organ, especially in the osseous and
muscular systems.) See also A. Dohrn: _Der Ursprung der Wirbelthiere und
das Princip des Functionswechsels_, Leipzig, 1875. See also Lamarck's
opinion, p. 295.

[225] "On the Inheritance of Acquired Characters in Animals with a
Complete Metamorphosis." Proceedings Amer. Acad. Arts and Sciences,
Boston, xxix. (N. S., xxi.). 1894, pp. 331-370; also monograph of
"Bombycine Moths," Memoirs Nat. Acad. Sciences, vii., 1895, p. 33.

[226] In 1885, in the Introduction to the _Standard Natural History_, we
proposed the term Neolamarckianism, or Lamarckism in its modern form, to
designate the series of factors of organic evolution, and we take the
liberty to quote the passage in which the word first occurs. We may add
that the briefer form, Neolamarckism, is the more preferable.

"In the United States a number of naturalists have advocated what may be
called Neo-Lamarckian views of evolution, especially the conception that
in some cases rapid evolution may occur. The present writer, contrary to
pure Darwinians, believes that many species, but more especially types
of genera and families, have been produced by changes in the environment
acting often with more or less rapidity on the organism, resulting at
times in a new genus, or even a family type. Natural selection, acting
through thousands, and sometimes millions, of generations of animals and
plants, often operates too slowly; there are gaps which have been, so to
speak, intentionally left by Nature. Moreover, natural selection was, as
used by some writers, more an idea than a _vera causa_. Natural
selection also begins with the assumption of a tendency to variation,
and presupposes a world already tenanted by vast numbers of animals
among which a struggle for existence was going on, and the few were
victorious over the many. But the entire inadequacy of Darwinism to
account for the primitive origin of life forms, for the original
diversity in the different branches of the tree of life forms, the
interdependence of the creation of ancient faunas and floras on
geological revolutions, and consequent sudden changes in the environment
of organisms, has convinced us that Darwinism is but one of a number of
factors of a true evolution theory; that it comes in play only as the
last term of a series of evolutionary agencies or causes; and that it
rather accounts, as first suggested by the Duke of Argyll, for the
_preservation_ of forms than for their origination. We may, in fact,
compare Darwinism to the apex of a pyramid, the larger mass of the
pyramid representing the complex of theories necessary to account for
the world of life as it has been and now is. In other words, we believe
in a modified and greatly extended Lamarckianism, or what may be called
Neo-Lamarckianism."

[227] _Studies in the Theory of Descent_. By Dr. August Weismann.
Translated and edited, with notes, by Raphael Meldola. London, 1882.
2 vols.

[228] "The Influence of Physical Conditions in the Genesis of Species,"
_Radical Review_, i., May, 1877. See also J. A. Allen in Bull. Mus.
Comp. Zooel. ii., 1871; also R. Ridgway, _American Journal of Science_,
December, 1872, January, 1873.

[229] Annual Report of the United States Geological and Geographical
Survey Territories, 1873. Pp. 543-560. See also the author's monograph
of Geometrid Moths or Phalaenidae of the United States, 1876, pp. 584-589,
and monograph of Bombycine Moths (Notodontidae), p. 50.

[230] Proceedings Academy of Natural Science, Philadelphia (1877),
p. 318.

[231] Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (1889), p. 546.

[232] Transactions American Philosophical Society, xvi. (1890), and
later papers.

[233] _American Journal of Morphology_ (1891), pp. 395, 398.

[234] "Ueber die Darwinische Theorie in Besug auf die geographische
Verbreitung der Organismen." Sitzenb. der Akad. Muenchen, 1868.
Translated by J. L. Laird under the title, _The Darwinian Theory and the
Law of the Migration of Organisms_. London, 1873. Also _Ueber den
Einfluss der geographischen Isolirung und Colonierbildung auf die
morphologischen Veraenderungen der Organismen_. Muenchen, 1870.

[235] _Linnaean Society's Journal_: Zooelogy, xi., 1872.

[236] _Linnaean Society's Journal_: Zooelogy, xx., 1887, pp. 189-274,
496-505: also _Nature_, July 18, 1872.

[237] _Evolution without Natural Selection; or, The Segregation of
Species without the aid of the Darwinian Hypothesis_, London (1885),
pp. 1-80.

[238] _Revue Scientifique_, xix. (1877). p. 669. Quoted by Giard in
_Rev. Sci._, 1889, p. 646.

[239] _Animal Life as Affected by the Natural Conditions of Existence._
By Karl Semper. The International Scientific Series. New York, 1881.

[240] _Organic Evolution as the Result of the Inheritance of Acquired
Characters, according to the Laws of Organic Growth._ Translated by
J. T. Cunningham, 1890.

[241] _On Orthogenesis and the Impotence of Natural Selection in Species
Formation._ Chicago, 1898.

[242] _Die Farbenevolution bei den Pieriden_. Leiden, 1898.

[243] "On Mechanical Selection and Other Problems." _Novitates
Zoologicae_, iii. Tring, 1896.

[244] _Entwicklung der Raupenzeichnung und Abhaengigkeit der letzeren von
der Farbe der Umgebung_, 1894.

[245] _Transmutation der Schmetterlinge infolge
Temperatur-veraenderungen_, 1895.

[246] _Ueber den Einfluss der Temperatur bei der Erzeugung der
Schmetterlings-varietaeten_, 1880.

[247] _Ueber Farbenwechsel bei niederen Wirbelthieren, bedingt durch
directe Wirkung des Lichts auf die Pigmentzellen._ _Centralblatt fuer
Physiologie_, 1891, v., p. 326.

[248] _Ueber den Farbenwechsel der Froesche._ _Pflueger's Archiv fuer
Physiologie_, 1892, li., p. 455.

[249] _Lecon d'Ouverture du Cours de l'Evolution des Etres organises._
Paris, 1888, and "Les Facteurs de l'Evolution," _Revue Scientifique_,
November 23, 1889.

[250] _Revue Encyclopedique_, 1897. p. 325. Yet we have an example of
the appearance of a new organ in the case of the duckbill, in which the
horny plates take the place of the teeth which Poulton has discovered in
the embryo. Other cases are the adductor muscles of shelled crustacea.
(See p. 418.)

[251] _La Philosophie Zoologique avant Darwin_. Paris, 1884, p. 76.

[252] "Lamarckism and Darwinism." Proceedings Boston Society Natural
History, xxv., 1890, pp. 42-49.

[253] "The Origin of Species without the Aid of Natural Selection,"
_Natural Science_, Oct., 1894. Also, "The Origin of Plant Structures."

[254] "Does Natural Selection play any Part in the Origin of Species
among Plants?" _Natural Science_, Sept., 1897.

[255] "Essay on the Development Hypothesis," 1852, London _Times_.

[256] "A Theoretical Origin of Endogens from Exogens through
Self-Adaptation to an Aquatic Habit," _Linnean Society Journal_: Botany,
1892, _l. c._, xxix., pp. 485-528. A case analogous to kinetogenesis in
animals is his statement based on mathematical calculations by
Mr. Hiern, "that the best form of the margin of floating leaves for
resisting the strains due to running water is circular, or at least the
several portions of the margin would be circular arcs" (p. 517).

[257] "De l'Influence du Milieu sur la Structure anatomique des
Vegetaux," _Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot._, ser. 6, xii., 1881, p. 167.

[258] "Notes on the Regional Distribution of the Cape Flora,"
_Transactions_ Botanical Society, Edinburgh. 1891, p. 241.

[259] _Les Vegetaux et les Milieux cosmiques_, Paris, 1898, pp. 292.

[260] Proceedings Biological Society of Washington, 1890.

[261] "Phylogeny of the Pelecypoda," Memoirs Boston Society Natural
History, iv., 1890, pp. 277-400. Also, _American Naturalist_, 1891,
xxv., pp. 11-21.

[262] "Transformations of Planorbis at Steinheim, with Remarks on the
Effects of Gravity upon the Forms of Shells and Animals," Proceedings
A. A. A. S., xxix., 1880.

[263] _Der Kampf der Theile im Organismus_. Leipzig, 1881. Also
_Gesammelte Abhandlungen ueber Entwickelungsmechanik der Organismen_.
Leipzig, 1895.

[264] _Die Unwandlung der Arten ein Vorgang functioneller
Selbsgestaltung_. Leipzig, 1894.

[265] _Gedanken zur Descendenz- und Vererbungstheorie; Biol.
Centralblatt_, xiii., 1893, 397-420.

[266] _Entwickelungmecanische Studien_, 1892-93.

[267] _Experimental Evolution_, 1892; also, "Recherches sur le Nanisme
experimental," _Journ. Anat. et Phys._, 1894.

[268] "Ueber die organsplastischen Kraefte der Organismen," _Arbeit. nat.
Ges._, Petersburg, xvi., 1885; Protok, 79-82.

[269] _General Physiology_, 1899.

[270] _Experimental Morphology_, 1897-99. 2 vols.

[271] "Modifications of Certain Organs which seem to be Illustrations of
the Inheritance of Acquired Characters in Mammals and Birds." _Zool.
Jahrb. Syst. Abth._, 1890, iv., pp. 629-646; also, _The Lost Link_, by
E. Haeckel, with notes, etc., by H. Gadow, 1899.

[272] Proceedings Biological Society of Washington, vi., 1892, pp. 13,
19.

[273] _Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews_, 1870, p. 323.

A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WRITINGS OF J. B. DE LAMARCK[274]

1778-1828

1778

Flore francaise ou description succinte de toutes les plantes qui
croissent naturellement en France, disposees selon une nouvelle methode
d'analyse et a laquelle on a joint la citation de leurs vertus les moins
equivoques en medecine et de leur utilite dans les arts. Paris (Impr.
Nationale), 1778. 8vo, 3 vol.

Vol. I. Ext. du Rapport fait par MM. Duhamet et Guettard de cet ouvrage.
pp. 1-4.

Discours preliminaire. pp. i-cxix.
Principes elementaires de Botanique. pp. 1-223.
Methode analytique.--Plantes cryptogames. pp. 1-132, viii, pl.

Vol. II. Methode analytique.--Plantes adultes, ou dont les fleurs sont
dans un etat de developpement parfait. pp. iv., 684.

Vol. III. Methode analytique. pp. 654, x.

_Idem._ 2e edit. Paris, 1793.

(1805-15)

Flore francaise ou description succinte de toutes les plantes qui
croissent naturellement en France, disposees selon une nouvelle methode
d'analyse, et precedees par un expose des principes elementaires de la
Botanique.

(En collaboration avec A. P. de Candolle). Edition III. Paris (Agasse),
1805. 4 vol., 8vo.

Vol. I. Lettre de M. de Candolle a M. Lamarck. pp. xv.

Discours preliminaire. (Reimpression de la 1re edit.) pp. 1-60.
Principes elementaires de Botanique, pp. 61-224.
Methode analytique: {analyse des genres. pp. 1-76.
{analyse des especes. pp. 77-388, 10 pl.

Vol. II. Explication de la Carte botanique de France, pp. i-xii. Plantes
acotyledonees. pp. 1-600. Carte coloriee.

Vol. III. Monocotyledonees phanerogames. pp. 731.

Vol. IV. " " pp. 944.

Meme edition, augmentee du tome 5 et tome 6, contenant 1300 especes non
decrites dans les cinq premiers volumes. Paris (Desray), 1815. 8vo,
pp. 622.

Lettre de M. A. P. de Candolle a M. Lamarck, pp. 10.

1783

Dictionnaire botanique.--(En Encyclopedie methodique. Paris, in 4to.) I,
1783; II, 1786; pour le IIIe volume, 1789, Lamarck a ete aide par
Desrousseaux. Le IVe, 1795, est de Desrousseaux, Poiret et Savigny. Les
derniers: V, 1804; VI, 1804; VII, 1806; et VIII, 1808, sont de Poiret.

Lamarck et Poiret. Encyclopedie method.: Botanique. 8 vols. et suppl.
1 a 3, avec 900 pl.

1784

Memoire sur un nouveau genre de plante nomme Brucea, et sur le faux
Bresillet d'Amerique. Mem. Acad. des Sci. 21 janvier 1784. pp. 342-347.

1785

Memoire sur les classes les plus convenables a etablir parmi les
vegetaux et sur l'analogie de leur nombre avec celles determinees dans
le regne animal, ayant egard de part et d'autre a la perfection graduee
des organes. (De la classification des vegetaux.) Mem. Acad. des Sci.
1785. pp. 437-453.

1788

Memoire sur le genre du Muscadier, Myristica. Mem. Acad. des Sci. 1788.
pp. 148-168, pl. v.-ix.

1790

Memoire sur les cabinets d'histoire naturelle, et particulierement sur
celui du Jardin des Plantes; contenant l'exposition du regime et de
l'ordre qui conviennent a cet etablissement, pour qu'il soit vraiment
utile. (No imprint.) 4to, pp. 15.

Considerations en faveur du Chevalier de la Marck, ancien officier au
Regiment de Beaujolais, de l'Academie Royale des Sciences; Botaniste du
Roi, attache au Cabinet d'Histoire Naturelle. [Paris] 1790. 8vo, pp. 7.

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