modernised Lamarckism with what we usually regard as sound Darwinism.
(Presidential Address to the British Association meeting at Dublin in
1908.)

To others it has always seemed that the emphasis should be laid on the
Environment, which wakes the organism to action, prompts it to change,
makes dints upon it, moulds it, prunes it, and finally, perhaps, kills it.
It is again impossible to doubt that there is truth in this view, for even
if environmentally induced "modifications" be not transmissible,
environmentally induced "variations" are; and even if the direct influence
of the environment be less important than many enthusiastic supporters of
this view--may we call them Buffonians--think, there remains the indirect
influence which Darwinians in part rely on,--the eliminative process. Even
if the extreme view be held that the only form of discriminate elimination
that counts is inter-organismal competition, this might be included under
the rubric of the animate environment.

In many passages Buffon (See in particular Samuel Butler, "Evolution Old
and New", London, 1879; J.L. de Lanessan, "Buffon et Darwin", "Revue
Scientifique", XLIII. pages 385-391, 425-432, 1889.) definitely suggested
that environmental influences--especially of climate and food--were
directly productive of changes in organisms, but he did not discuss the
question of the transmissibility of the modifications so induced, and it is
difficult to gather from his inconsistent writings what extent of
transformation he really believed in. Prof. Osborn says of Buffon: "The
struggle for existence, the elimination of the least-perfected species, the
contest between the fecundity of certain species and their constant
destruction, are all clearly expressed in various passages." He quotes two
of these (op. cit. page 136.):