out his theory of evolution without any knowledge of Erasmus Darwin's which
it closely resembled. The central idea of his theory was the cumulative
inheritance of functional modifications. "Changes in environment bring
about changes in the habits of animals. Changes in their wants necessarily
bring about parallel changes in their habits. If new wants become constant
or very lasting, they form new habits, the new habits involve the use of
new parts, or a different use of old parts, which results finally in the
production of new organs and the modification of old ones." He differed
from Buffon in not attaching importance, as far as animals are concerned,
to the direct influence of the environment, "for environment can effect no
direct change whatever upon the organisation of animals," but in regard to
plants he agreed with Buffon that external conditions directly moulded
them.

Treviranus (1776-1837) (See Huxley's article "Evolution in Biology",
"Encyclopaedia Britannica" (9th edit.), 1878, pages 744-751, and Sully's
article, "Evolution in Philosophy", ibid. pages 751-772.), whom Huxley
ranked beside Lamarck, was on the whole Buffonian, attaching chief
importance to the influence of a changeful environment both in modifying
and in eliminating, but he was also Goethian, for instance in his idea that
species like individuals pass through periods of growth, full bloom, and
decline. "Thus, it is not only the great catastrophes of Nature which have
caused extinction, but the completion of cycles of existence, out of which
new cycles have begun." A characteristic sentence is quoted by Prof.
Osborn: "In every living being there exists a capability of an endless
variety of form-assumption; each possesses the power to adapt its
organisation to the changes of the outer world, and it is this power, put
into action by the change of the universe, that has raised the simple
zoophytes of the primitive world to continually higher stages of
organisation, and has introduced a countless variety of species into