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Updated: May 3, 2025
Nor is this quite all, for surely we find the germ of the Lamarckian conception of evolution through the transmission of acquired characters in the assertion that "many characteristics appear in animals because it happened to be thus in their birth, as that they have such a spine because they happen to be descended from one that bent itself backward."
He has naturally been welcomed by English Charles-Darwinians; for if his view can be sustained, then it can be contended that use and disuse produce no transmissible effect, and the ground is cut from under Lamarck's feet; if, on the other hand, his view is unfounded, the Lamarckian reaction, already strong, will gain still further strength.
"The Lamarckian principle, therefore, offers but a possible and to transformation, the principal cause is to be found in organic growth."
But the fact remains that Aristotle's grand divisions correspond to the grand divisions of the Lamarckian system vertebrates and invertebrates which every one now accepts. Aristotle, as we have said, based his classification upon observation of the blood; Lamarck was guided by a study of the skeleton.
The vast influence of Cuvier was employed against the Lamarckian views, and, as the untenability of some of his conclusions was easily shown, his doctrines sank under the opprobrium of scientific, as well as of theological, heterodoxy.
It may be pointed out here that on the Lamarckian theory the conception of adaptations is not teleological: they do not exist for a certain purpose, but are the result of external stimulations arising from the actions and habits of the organism. The latter conception is the more general, for cases of somatic sexual characters exist which cannot be said to have a use or function.
Notwithstanding Professor Weismann's objections, the balance of evidence appears to favor the view that the Lamarckian factor of acquired variations stands as the complement of the Darwinian factor of natural selection in effecting the transmutation of species.
From what has been said of these post-Darwinian discoveries, the Lamarckian doctrine, which teaches that acquired non-congenital characters are transmitted, seems to be ruled out. I would not lead you to believe that the matter is settled.
A frequent and a just objection to the Lamarckian hypothesis of the transmutation of species is based upon the absence of transitional forms between many species. But against the Darwinian hypothesis this argument has no force. Indeed, one of the most valuable and suggestive parts of Mr.
Darwin's calling his grandfather's views "erroneous," in the historical sketch prefixed to the later editions of the "Origin of Species." Passing over the passage already quoted on p. 62 of this book, in which Mr. Darwin declares "habit omnipotent and its effects hereditary" a sentence, by the way, than which none can be either more unfalteringly Lamarckian or less tainted with the vices of Mr.
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