Abstract
THE present work will not add to the reputation of the author of “Life and Habit.” It is, nevertheless, an interesting and useful book, inasmuch as it gives a pretty full account of the theories and opinions of several authors whose writings are almost unknown to the present generation of naturalists. The sketch of the lives, and the numerous quotations from the works of the celebrated men named in the title page, are instructive and sometimes amusing. Quotations are also given from Mr. Patrick Matthew, Étienne and Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire, and Herbert Spencer, illustrating their views on evolution, and giving altogether a fair idea of the progress of modern thought on this important subject. But the main object of the book is to show that all these authors have been right, while Mr. Charles Darwin is altogether wrong; and that the works of the former contain a more philosophical, more accurate, and altogether superior view of the nature and causes of evolution in the organic world than those of the latter.
Evolution, Old and New; or, The Theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck, as compared with that of Mr. Charles Darwin.
By Samuel Butler. (Op. 4.) (London: Hardwicke and Bogue, 1879.)
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WALLACE, A. Evolution, Old and New . Nature 20, 141–144 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/020141a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/020141a0