e to satisfy
himself that any hypothesis of the _mode_ of evolution, that had up to
that time been suggested, could be regarded as satisfactory.

The only serious attempt to _explain_ the derivation of new species from
old ones that came before Lyell was that of the illustrious Lamarck.

Very noteworthy was the work of that old wounded French soldier,
afflicted in his later years as he was by blindness. By his early
labours, Lamarck had attained a considerable reputation as a botanist,
and later in life he turned his attention to zoology, and then to
palaeontology and geology. In zoology, he did for the study of
invertebrate animals what his great contemporary Cuvier was
accomplishing for the vertebrates; but, with regard to the origin of
species, he arrived at conclusions directly at variance with those of
his distinguished rival.

We are indebted to Professor Osborn[85] for calling attention to that
remarkable, but little known work of Lamarck's--_Hydrogeologie_--published
in 1802, seven years before his _Philosophie Zoologique_ appeared. This
work is especially interesting as showing to how great an extent--as in
the case of Darwin, Wallace and others--it was geological phenomena which
played an important part in leading Lamarck to evolutionary convictions.
"In Geology," Professor Osborn writes,

'Lamarck was an ardent advocate of uniformity, as against the
Cataclysmal School. The main principles are laid down in his
_Hydrogeologie_, that all the revolutions of the earth are
extremely slow. "For Nature," he says, "time is nothing. It is
never a difficulty, she always has it at her disposal; and it is
for her the means by which she has accomplished the greatest as
well as the least results[86]."'

On the subject of subaerial denudation (the action of rain and rivers in
wearing down the earth's surface), Lamarck's views were as clear and
definite as those of Hutton himself; though it is almost certain that he
could never have seen, or even heard of, the writings of the great
Scottish philosopher. On some other questions of geological dynamics,
however, it must be confessed that Lamarck's views and speculations were
rather crude and unsatisfactory.

In his _Philosophie Zoologique_, published in the same year that Charles
Darwin was born (1809), Lamarck brought forward a great body of evidence
in favour of evolution, derived from his extensive knowledge of botany,
zoology and geology. H