The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution, by Alpheus Spring Packard pptx

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lamarck, the Founder ofEvolution, by Alpheus Spring Packard This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with... Author: Alpheus Spring Pac

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lamarck, the Founder of

Evolution, by

Alpheus Spring Packard

This eBook is for the use of

anyone anywhere at no cost and with

Author: Alpheus Spring Packard

Release Date: February 10, 2007 [EBook #20556]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT

GUTENBERG EBOOK LAMARCK, THE FOUNDER OF EVOLUTION ***

Produced by Geetu Melwani, David Clarke, Laura Wisewell

and the Online Distributed

from the Google Print project.)

Motif from the cover of the book

LAMARCK

Attempt at a reconstruction of the Profile of Lamarck

from an unpublished etching by Dr Cachet

HIS WRITINGS ON ORGANIC

EVOLUTION

By ALPHEUS S PACKARD,

M.D., LL.D.

Professor of Zoölogy and Geology in Brown University; author of “Guide to

the Study of Insects,” “Text-book of

Entomology,” etc., etc.

“La postérité vous

Copyright, 1901, by

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND

CO

All rights reserved

Press of J J Little & Co.Astor Place, New York

Although it is now acentury since Lamarckpublished the germs of histheory, it is perhaps only withinthe past fifty years that thescientific world and the generalpublic have become familiarwith the name of Lamarck and

of Lamarckism

The rise and rehabilitation

of the Lamarckian theory oforganic evolution, so that it hasbecome a rival of Darwinism;the prevalence of these views inthe United States, Germany,England, and especially inFrance, where its author isjustly regarded as the realfounder of organic evolution,has invested his name with anew interest, and led to a desire

to learn some of the details ofhis life and work, and of his

theory as he unfolded it in 1800and subsequent years, andfinally expounded it in 1809.The time seems ripe, therefore,for a more extended sketch ofLamarck and his theory, as well

as of his work as aphilosophical biologist, than hasyet appeared

But the seeker after thedetails of his life is baffled bythe general ignorance about theman—his antecedents, his

parentage, the date of his birth,his early training and education,his work as a professor in theJardin des Plantes, the house helived in, the place of his burial,and his relations to his scientificcontemporaries.

Except the éloges ofGeoffroy St Hilaire and Cuvier,and the brief notices of Martins,Duval, Bourguignat, andBourguin, there is no specialbiography, however brief,

except a brochure of thirty-one

pages, reprinted from a fewscattered articles by thedistinguished anthropologist,

M Gabriel de Mortillet, in thefourth and last volume of a

little-known journal, l’Homme,

e n t it le d Lamarck Par un Groupe de Transformistes, ses Disciples, Paris, 1887 This

exceedingly rare pamphlet waswritten by the late M Gabriel

de Mortillet, with the assistance

of Philippe Salmon and Dr A.Mondière, who with others,under the leadership of PaulNicole, met in 1884 and formed

a Réunion Lamarck and a

Dîner Lamarck, to maintain and

perpetuate the memory of thegreat French transformist.Owing to their efforts, the exactdate of Lamarck’s birth, thehouse in which he lived duringhis lifetime at Paris, and all that

we shall ever know of his place

of burial have been established.

It is a lasting shame that hisremains were not laid in agrave, but were allowed to beput into a trench, with noheadstone to mark the site, onone side of a row of graves ofothers better cared for, fromwhich trench his bones, withthose of others unknown andneglected, were exhumed andthrown into the catacombs ofParis Lamarck left behind him

no letters or manuscripts;nothing could be ascertainedregarding the dates of hismarriages, the names of hiswives or of all his children Ofhis descendants but one isknown to be living, an officer inthe army But his aims in life,his undying love of science, hisnoble character and generousdisposition are constantlyrevealed in his writings.

The name of Lamarck has

been familiar to me from myyouth up When a boy, I used

to arrange my collection ofshells by the Lamarckiansystem, which had replaced theold Linnean classification Forover thirty years theLamarckian factors of evolutionhave seemed to me to afford thefoundation on which naturalselection rests, to be theprimary and efficient causes oforganic change, and thus to

account for the origin ofvariations, which Darwinhimself assumed as the startingpoint or basis of his selectiontheory It is not lessening thevalue of Darwin’s labors, torecognize the originality ofLamarck’s views, the vigor withwhich he asserted their truth,and the heroic manner inwhich, against adverse andcontemptuous criticism, to hisdying day he clung to them.

During a residence in Paris

in the spring and summer of

1899, I spent my leisure hours

in gathering material for thisbiography I visited the place ofhis birth—the little hamlet ofBazentin, near Amiens—and,thanks to the kindness of theschoolmaster of that village,

M Duval, was shown the housewhere Lamarck was born, therecords in the old parish register

at the mairie of the birth of the

father of Lamarck and ofLamarck himself The JesuitSeminary at Amiens was alsovisited, in order to obtain traces

of his student life there, thoughthe search was unsuccessful

My thanks are due toProfessor A Giard of Paris forkind assistance in the loan ofrare books, for copies of hisown essays, especially his

Leçon d’Ouverture des Cours

de l’Évolution des Êtres

organisés, 1888, and infacilitating the work ofcollecting data Introduced byhim to Professor Hamy, thelearned anthropologist andarchivist of the Muséumd’Histoire Naturelle, I wasgiven by him the freest access

to the archives in the Maison

de Buffon, which, among otherpapers, contained the MS

Archives du Muséum; i.e., the Procès verbaux des Séances

tenues par les Officiers du Jardin des Plantes, from 1790

to 1830, bound in vellum, inthirty-four volumes These wereall looked through, thoughfound to contain but little ofbiographical interest relating toLamarck, beyond proving that

he lived in that ancient edificefrom 1793 until his death in

1829 Dr Hamy’s elaboratehistory of the last years of theRoyal Garden and of the

foundation of the Muséumd’Histoire Naturelle, in thevolume commemorating thecentennial of the foundation ofthe Museum, has been ofessential service.

My warmest thanks aredue to M Adrien de Mortillet,formerly secretary of theSociety of Anthropology ofParis, for most essential aid Hekindly gave me a copy of a veryrare pamphlet, entitled

Lamarck Par un Groupe de Transformistes, ses Disciples.

He also referred me to noticesbearing on the genealogy ofLamarck and his family in the

Revue de Gascogne for 1876.

To him also I am indebted forthe privilege of havingelectrotypes made of the five

illustrations in the Lamarck, for

copies of the composite portrait

of Lamarck by Dr Gachet, andalso for a photograph of the

Acte de Naissance reproduced

by the late M Salmon

I have also to acknowledgethe kindness shown me by

Dr J Deniker, the librarian ofthe Bibliothèque du Muséumd’Histoire Naturelle

I had begun in the museumlibrary, which contains nearly ifnot every one of Lamarck’spublications, to prepare abibliography of all of Lamarck’swritings, when, to my surprise

and pleasure, I was presentedwith a very full and elaborateone by the assistant-librarian,

M Godefroy Malloisel

To Professor EdmondPerrier I am indebted for a copy

of his valuable Lamarck et le

reprinted from the noble volumecommemorative of thecentennial of the foundation ofthe Muséum d’HistoireNaturelle, which has proved of

much use.

Other sources from whichbiographical details have been

taken are Cuvier’s éloge, and

the notice of Lamarck, with alist of many of his writings, in

t h e Revue biographique de la

Société malacologique de France, 1886 This notice,

which is illustrated by threeportraits of Lamarck, one ofwhich has been reproduced, Iwas informed by M Paul

Kleinsieck was prepared by thelate J R Bourguignat, theeminent malacologist andanthropologist The notices byProfessor Mathias Duval and by

L A Bourguin have been ofessential service

As regards the account ofLamarck’s speculative andtheoretical views, I have, so far

as possible, preferred, byabstracts and translations, to lethim tell his own story, rather

than to comment at muchlength myself on points aboutwhich the ablest thinkers andstudents differ so much.

It is hoped that Lamarck’swritings referring to theevolution theory may, at nodistant date, be reprinted in theoriginal, as they are not bulkyand could be comprised in asingle volume

This life is offered withmuch diffidence, though the

pleasure of collecting thematerials and of putting themtogether has been very great.

Brown University,

Providence,

R I.,

October, 1901.

I B IRTH , F AMILY , Y OUTH ,

AND M ILITARY C AREER

V L AST D AYS AND D EATH 51

P HYSIOLOGY AND

B IOLOGY

XI L AMARCK AS A B OTANIST 173 XII L AMARCK THE

XV W HEN DID L AMARCK

CHANGE HIS V IEWS

XIX L AMARCK ’ S T HOUGHTS

ON M ORALS , AND ON THE

N EOLAMARCKISM

B IBLIOGRAPHY 425

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

E v o l u t i o n H i s

of his age, and who diedcomparatively unappreciatedand neglected But his originaland philosophic views, based asthey were on broad conceptions

of nature, and touching on theburning questions of our day,have, after the lapse of ahundred years, gained freshinterest and appreciation, andgive promise of permanentacceptance.

The author of the Flore

Française will never beforgotten by his countrymen,who called him the FrenchLinné; and he who wrote the

Animaux sans Vertèbres at

once took the highest rank asthe leading zoölogist of hisperiod But Lamarck was morethan a systematic biologist ofthe first order Besides rareexperience and judgment in theclassification of plants and ofanimals, he had an unusuallyactive, inquiring, andphilosophical mind, with anoriginality and boldness inspeculation, and soundness inreasoning and in dealing with

such biological facts as wereknown in his time, which havecaused his views as to themethod of organic evolution toagain come to the front.

As a zoölogicalphilosopher no one of his timeapproached Lamarck Theperiod, however, in which helived was not ripe for the heartyand general adoption of thetheory of descent As in theorganic world we behold here

and there prophetic types,anticipating, in their generalizedsynthetic nature, the incoming,ages after, of more specializedtypes, so Lamarck anticipated

by more than half a century theprinciples underlying thepresent evolutionary theories

So numerous are now theadherents, in some form, ofLamarck’s views, that at thepresent time evolutionists aredivided into Darwinians and

Lamarckians orNeolamarckians The factors oforganic evolution as stated byLamarck, it is now claimed bymany, really comprise theprimary or foundation principles

or initiative causes of the origin

of life-forms Hence not only domany of the leading biologists

of his native country, but some

of those of Germany, of theUnited States, and of England,justly regard him as the founder

of the theory of organicevolution.

Besides this, Lamarck lived

in a transition period Heprepared the way for thescientific renascence in France.Moreover, his simple, unselfishcharacter was a rare one Heled a retired life His youth wastinged with romance, andduring the last decade of his life

he was blind He manfully andpatiently bore adverse

criticisms, ridicule,forgetfulness, andinappreciation, while, so farfrom renouncing his theoreticalviews, he tenaciously clung tothem to his dying day.

The biography of such acharacter is replete withinterest, and the memory of hisunselfish and fruitful devotion toscience should be forevercherished His life was alsonotable for the fact that after his

fiftieth year he took up andmastered a new science; and at

a period when many students ofliterature and science cease to

be productive and rest fromtheir labors, he accomplishedthe best work of his life—workwhich has given him lastingfame as a systematist and as aphilosophic biologist Moreover,Lamarckism comprises thefundamental principles ofevolution, and will always have

to be taken into consideration inaccounting for the origin, notonly of species, but especially

of the higher groups, such asorders, classes, and phyla

This striking personage inthe history of biological science,who has made such anineffaceable impression on thephilosophy of biology, certainlydemands more than a brief

éloge to keep alive his memory.

Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Antoine de Monet, Chevalier

de Lamarck, was bornAugust 1, 1744, at Bazentin-le-Petit This little village issituated in Picardy, or what isnow the Department of theSomme, in the Arrondissement

de Péronne, Canton d’Albert, alittle more than four miles fromAlbert, between this town andBapaume, and near Longueval,the nearest post-office to

Bazentin The village ofBazentin-le-Grand, composed

of a few more houses than itssister hamlet, is seen half a mile

to the southeast, shaded by thelittle forest such as bordersnearly every town and village inthis region The two hamlets arepleasantly situated in a richlycultivated country, on the chalkuplands or downs of Picardy,amid broad acres of wheat andbarley variegated with poppies

and the purple cornflower, andwith roadsides shaded by tallpoplars.

The peasants to thenumber of 251 compose thediminishing population Therewere 356 in 1880, or about thatdate The silence of the singlelittle street, with its one-storied,thatched or tiled cottages, is atinfrequent intervals broken by

an elderly dame in her sabots,

or by a creaking, rickety village

cart driven by a farmer-boy inblouse and hob-nailed shoes.The largest inhabited building is

the mairie, a modern structure,

at one end of which is thevillage school, where fifteen ortwenty urchins enjoy theinstructions of the worthyteacher A stone church, built in

1774, and somewhat larger thanthe needs of the hamlet atpresent require, raises its towerover the quiet scene