how far Lamarck knew the substance of Dr. Darwin's theory.
Lamarck knew Buffon personally; he had been tutor to Buffon's son, and
Buffon had three of Lamarck's volumes on the French Flora printed at the
royal printing press;--how can we account for Lamarck's having had
Buffon's theory of descent with modification before him for so many
years, and yet remaining a partisan of immutability till 1801? Before
this year we find no trace of his having accepted evolution;
thenceforward he is one of the most ardent and constant exponents which
this doctrine has ever had. What was it that repelled him in Buffon's
system? How is it that in the 'Philosophie Zoologique' there is not, so
far as I can remember, a single reference to Buffon, from whom, however,
as we shall see, many paragraphs are taken with but very little
alteration?

I am inclined to think that the secret of this sudden conversion must be
found in a French translation by M. Deleuze of Dr. Darwin's poem, 'The
Loves of the Plants' which appeared in 1800. Lamarck--the most eminent
botanist of his time--was sure to have heard of and seen this, and would
probably know the translator, who would be able to give him a fair idea
of the 'Zoonomia.'

I will give a few of the passages which Lamarck would find in this
translation. Speaking of Dr. Darwin, M. Deleuze says:--"Il falloit
encore qu'un nouvel observateur, entrant dans la route qui venoit de
s'ouvrir, s'y frayat des sentiers ignores; que liant la physique
vegetale a la botanique il nous montrat dans les plantes, non seulement
des corps organises soumis a des lois constantes, mais des etres doues
sinon de sensibilite, au moins d'une irritabilite particuliere, d'un
principe de vie _qui leur fait executer des mouvements analogues a leurs
besoins_....[202]

"Il est des animaux et des plantes qui par le laps du tems paroissent
avoir eprouve des changemens dans leur organisation, _pour s'accommoder
a de nouveaux genres de nourriture et aux moyens de se la procurer_.
Peut-etre les productions de la nature font elles des progres vers la
perfection. Cette idee appuyee par les observations modernes sur
l'accroissement progressif des parties solides du globe, s'accorde avec
la dignite et la providence du createur de l'univers."[203]

"La nature semble s'etre fait un jeu d'etablir entre tous les etres
organises une sorte de guerre qui entretient leur activite: si elle a
donne aux uns des moyens de defense, elle a donne aux au