From the first he has severely attacked and criticised the theories of Weismann, who denies this most important factor of phylogeny, and would explain the whole of transformism by the 'all-sufficiency of selection.
During the forty years which have elapsed since Darwin's first publication of his theories an enormous literature, discussing the general problems of transformismas well as its special application to man, has been published.
As early as 1866 I myself had applied in the Generelle Morphologie der Organismen the theory of transformism to anthropology, and had shown that the fundamental law of biogeny claims the same value for man as for all the other animals.
Such attacks on the theory of transformism indicate a failure to understand the principles of the theory of Evolution and to appreciate the significance of palaeontology, comparative anatomy, and ontogeny.
Lamarck has explained his views of transformism chiefly in the seventh chapter of the first volume of his 'Philosophie zoologique.
It has to be taken in conjunction with the transformism of Lamarck, with which it is in complete harmony.
Enough, quite enough of that, without having transformism next to break down the sacred law of work.
The idea of transformismis already in germ in the natural classification of organized beings.
For this reason we think the language of transformism forces itself now upon all philosophy, as the dogmatic affirmation of transformism forces itself upon science.
Let us admit, however, thattransformism may be wrong.
Will it not, therefore, be better to stick to the letter of transformism as almost all scientists profess it?
Almost all that transformism tells us to-day would be preserved, open to interpretation in another way.
Therefore biology could and would continue to establish between living forms the same relations and the same kinship as transformism supposes to-day.
This must be well understood, because recent metaphysicians see in the supposed refutation of Darwinism the death of the whole theory of transformism and evolution.
Stanislas Meunier, arguing in the Revue Scientifique (December 19) against all schools oftransformism and stoutly maintaining what is practically a doctrine of special creation.
Transformism makes no pretence to account for the origin of life, whether animal or vegetable.
And, in fact, it has been admitted by almost all who have dealt with transformism without prepossessions that such is the state of affairs.
We said that transformism might be proved one day to be a true evolution, governed by one immanent principle, which then would have to be regarded as a new primary factor in nature, but we did not know the least about that principle.
That is not quite without logical importance, for it shows that not biology alone has led to the transformism hypothesis.
Of course, these facts can only be such as relate to specific diversities, and indeed are facts of systematics; in other words, there exists something in the very nature of the system of organisms that renders transformism probable.
That is the Darwinian part of an explanation of transformism which may be conceded as an hypothesis.
But we must leave this problem an open question, as long as our actual knowledge abouttransformism remains as poor as it is.
Phylogeny always rests on the assumption that only some of the characters of the organisms were changed in transformism and that what remained unchanged may be explained by the fact of inheritance.
The idea of transformism is already contained in germ in the natural classification of organised beings.
The affirmative seems all the more inevitable inasmuch as the language of transformism is the only language known to the biology of today.
The slightly war-worn evolution theory is now confronted by the Transformism of Hugo de Vries, who has shown in a most original manner that nature also proceeds by sudden leaps as well as in slow, orderly progress.
It is not the rigid old-fashioned materialism, but a return to the more plastic theories of Lamarck and the transformism of the Dutch botanist, Hugo de Vries.
Monistic Biogeny--Transformism and the Theory of Descent: Lamarck and Darwin--IV.
The first thorough attempt at a scientific establishment of transformism was made at the beginning of the nineteenth century by the great French scientist Jean Lamarck, the chief opponent of his colleague, Cuvier, at Paris.
This reproach has been made to the transformism of Lamarck and Darwin, as it had been to the previous systems of Kant and Laplace; there are a number of dualist philosophers who lay great stress on it.
