ecies question in
that work, whatever might be said for it in 1809, was miserably
below the level of the knowledge of half a century later. In that
interval of time, the elucidation of the structure of the lower
animals and plants had given rise to wholly new conceptions of
their relations; histology and embryology, in the modern sense,
had been created; physiology had been reconstituted; the facts of
distribution, geological and geographical, had been prodigiously
multiplied and reduced to order. To any biologist whose studies
had carried him beyond mere species-mongering, in 1850 one-half
of Lamarck's arguments were obsolete, and the other half
erroneous or defective, in virtue of omitting to deal with the
various classes of evidence which had been brought to light since
his time. Moreover his one suggestion as to the cause of the
gradual modification of species--effort excited by change of
conditions--was, on the face of it, inapplicable to the whole
vegetable world. I do not think that any impartial judge who
reads the _Philosophie Zoologique_ now, and who afterwards takes
up Lyell's trenchant and effective criticism (published as far
back as 1830) will be disposed to allot to Lamarck a much higher
place in the establishment of biological evolution than that
which Bacon assigns to himself in relation to physical science
generally--_buccinator tantum_".

On the other hand, Huxley's friendship with Darwin and with Lyell
began to make him less certain about the fixity of species. He tells
us that during his first interview with Darwin, which occurred soon
after his return from the _Rattlesnake_, he

"expressed his belief in the sharpness of the lines of
demarcation between natural groups and in the absence of
transitional forms, with all the confidence of youth and
imperfect knowledge. I was not aware at that time that he had
been many years brooding over the species question; and the
humorous smile which accompanied his gentle answer, that such was
not altogether his view, long haunted and puzzled me."

An elaborate study of Lyell's works helped largely in destroying this
youthful confidence, and a letter written by Lyell and quoted by
Huxley in the chapter he communicated to Darwin's _Life and Letters_,
states that in April, 1856, "when Huxley, Hooker, and Wollaston were