Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution Part 29

"What proves it is that the organ of _hearing_ is never in this condition, and that we always find it in the animals when the nature of their organization should require its existence; the reason is as follows.

"The _cause of sound_, that which, moved by the shock or the vibrations of bodies, transmits to the organ of hearing the impression which it receives, penetrates everywhere, traverses all the media, and even the ma.s.s of the densest bodies: from this it results that every animal which makes a part of a plan of organization to which _hearing_ is essential, has always occasion to exercise this organ in whatever situation it lives. So, among the _vertebrate animals_ we see none deprived of their organs of hearing; but in the groups below them, when the same organs are once wanting, we do not again find them.

"It is not so with the organ of sight, for we see this organ disappear, reappear, and again disappear, in proportion to the possibility or impossibility of the animal's exercising it.

"In the _acephalous molluscs_, the great development of the mantle of these molluscs has rendered their eyes and even their head entirely useless. These organs, also forming a part of a plan of organization which should comprise them, have disappeared and atrophied from constant lack of use.

"Finally, it is a part of the plan of organization of _reptiles_, as in other vertebrate animals, to have four legs appended to their skeleton. The serpents should consequently have four, though they do not form the lowest order of reptiles, and are not so near the fishes as the batrachians (the frogs, the salamanders, etc.).

"However, the serpents having taken up the habit of gliding along the ground, and of concealing themselves in the gra.s.s, their body, owing to continually repeated efforts to elongate itself so as to pa.s.s through narrow s.p.a.ces, has acquired a considerable length disproportionate to its size. Moreover, limbs would have been very useless to these animals, and consequently would not have been employed: because long legs would have interfered with their need of gliding, and very short legs, not being more than four in number, would have been incapable of moving their body. Hence the lack of use of these parts having been constant in the races of these animals, has caused the total disappearance of these same parts, although really included in the plan of organization of the animals of their cla.s.s.

"Many insects which by the natural character of their order, and even of their genus, should have wings, lack them more or less completely from disuse. A quant.i.ty of Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Hymenoptera, and of Hemiptera, etc., afford examples; the habits of these animals do not require them to make use of their wings.

"But it is not sufficient to give the explanation of the cause which has brought about the condition of the organs of different animals--a condition which we see to be always the same in those of the same species; we must besides observe the changes of condition produced in the organs of one and the same individual during its life, by the single result of a great change in the special habits in the individuals of its species. The following fact, which is one of the most remarkable, will serve to prove the influence of habits on the condition of organs, and show how changes wrought in the habits of an individual, produce the condition of the organs which are brought into action during the exercise of these habits.

"M. Tenon, member of the Inst.i.tute, has given an account to the Cla.s.s of Sciences, that having examined the intestinal ca.n.a.l of several men who had been hard drinkers all their lives, he had constantly found it to be shortened to an extraordinary extent, compared with the same organ in those not given to such a habit.

"We know that hard drinkers, or those who are addicted to drunkenness, take very little solid food, that they eat very lightly, and that the beverage which they take in excess frequently suffices to nourish them.

"Moreover, as fluid aliments, especially spirituous liquors, do not remain a long time either in the stomach or in the intestines, the stomach and the remainder of the intestinal ca.n.a.l lose the habit of being distended in intemperate persons, so also in sedentary persons and those engaged in mental labor, who are habituated to take but little food. Gradually and at length their stomach becomes contracted, and their intestines shortened.

"We are not concerned here with the shrinkage and shortening produced by a puckering of the parts, which permit ordinary extension, if instead of a continued emptiness these viscera should be filled; the shrinkage and shortening in question are real, considerable, and such that these organs would burst open rather than yield suddenly to the causes which would require ordinary extension.

"In circ.u.mstances of persons of the same age, compare a man who, in order to devote himself to habitual study and mental work, which have rendered his digestion more difficult, has contracted the habit of eating lightly, with another who habitually takes a good deal of exercise, walks out often, and eats heartily; the stomach of the first will be weakened, and a small quant.i.ty of food will fill it, while that of the second will be not only maintained in its ordinary health but even strengthened.

"We have here the case of an organ much modified in its dimensions and in its faculties by the single cause of a change in habits during the life of the individual.

"_The frequent use of an organ become constant by habit increases the faculties of this organ, even develops it, and enables it to acquire dimensions and a power of action which it does not possess in animals which exercise less._

"We have just said that the lack of employment of an organ which necessarily exists modifies it, impoverishes it, and ends by its disappearing entirely.

"I shall now demonstrate that the continued employment of an organ, with the efforts made to draw out its powers under circ.u.mstances where it would be of service, strengthens, extends, and enlarges this organ, or creates a new one which can exercise the necessary functions.

"The bird which necessity drives to the water to find there prey fitted for its sustenance, opens the digits of its feet when it wishes to strike the water and propel itself along its surface. The skin which unites these digits at their base, by these acts of spreading apart being unceasingly repeated contracts the habit of extending; so that after a while the broad membranes which connect the digits of ducks, geese, etc., are formed as we see them. The same efforts made in swimming--_i.e._, in pushing back the water, in order to advance and to move in this liquid--have likewise extended the membrane situated between the digits of the frogs, the sea-turtles, the otter, beaver, etc.

"On the contrary, the bird whose mode of life habituates it to perch on trees, and which is born of individuals who have all contracted this habit, has necessarily the digits of the feet longer and shaped in another way than those of the aquatic animals which I have just mentioned. Its claws, after a while, became elongated, pointed, and curved or hook-like in order to grasp the branches on which the animal often rests.

"Likewise we see that the sh.o.r.e bird, which is not inclined to swim, and which moreover has need of approaching the edge of the water to find there its prey, is in continual danger of sinking in the mud.

Now, this bird, wishing to act so that its body shall not fall into the water, makes every effort to extend and elongate its legs. It results from this that the long-continued habit that this bird and the others of its race contract, of extending and continually elongating their legs, is the _cause_ of the individuals of this race being raised as if on stilts, having gradually acquired long, naked legs, which are denuded of feathers up to the thighs and often above them (_Systeme des Animaux sans Vertebres_, p. 16).

"We also perceive that the same bird, wishing to catch fish without wetting its body, is obliged to make continual efforts to lengthen its neck. Now, the results of these habitual efforts in this individual and in those of its race have enabled them, after a time, to singularly elongate them--as, indeed, is proved by the long neck of all sh.o.r.e birds.

"If any swimming birds, such as the swan and the goose, whose legs are short, nevertheless have a very long neck, it is because these birds in swimming on the surface of the water have the habit of plunging their head down as far as they can, to catch aquatic larvae and different animalcules for food, and because they make no effort to lengthen their legs.

"When an animal to satisfy its wants makes repeated efforts to elongate its tongue, it will acquire a considerable length (the ant-eater, green wood-p.e.c.k.e.r); when it is obliged to seize anything with this same organ, then its tongue will divide and become forked.

That of the humming-birds, which seize with their tongue, and that of the lizard and serpents, which use it to feel and examine objects in front of them, are proofs of what I advocate.

"Wants, always occasioned by circ.u.mstances, and followed by sustained efforts to satisfy them, are not limited in results, in modifying--that is to say, in increasing or diminishing--the extent and the faculties of organs; but they also come to displace these same organs when certain of these wants become a necessity.

"The fishes which habitually swim in large bodies of water, having need of seeing laterally, have, in fact, their eyes placed on the sides of the head. Their bodies, more or less flattened according to the _species_, have their sides perpendicular to the plane of the water, and their eyes are placed in such a way that there is an eye on each flattened side. But those fishes whose habits place them under the necessity of constantly approaching the sh.o.r.es, and especially the shelving banks or where the slope is slight, have been forced to swim on their flattened faces, so as to be able to approach nearer the edge of the water. In this situation, receiving more light from above than from beneath, and having a special need of being always attentive to what is going on above them, this need has forced one of their eyes to undergo a kind of displacement, and to a.s.sume the very singular situation which is familiar to us in the _soles_, _turbots_, _dabs_, etc. (_Pleuronectes_ and _Achirus_). The situation of these eyes is asymmetrical, because this results from an incomplete change. Now, this change is entirely completed in the rays, where the transverse flattening of the body is entirely horizontal, as also the head. Also the eyes of the rays, both situated on the upper side, have become symmetrical.

"The serpents which glide along the surface of the ground are obliged chiefly to see elevated objects, or what are above their eyes. This necessity has brought an influence to bear on the situation of the organs of vision in these animals; and, in fact, they have the eyes placed in the lateral and upper parts of the head, so as to easily perceive what is above or at their sides; but they only see for a short distance what is in front of them.

Moreover, forced to supply the lack of ability to see and recognize what is in front of their head, and which might injure them, they need only to feel such objects with the aid of their tongue, which they are obliged to dart out with all their power. This habit has not only contributed to render the tongue slender, very long and retractile, but has also led in a great number of species to its division, so as to enable them to feel several objects at once; it has likewise allowed them to form an opening at the end of their head, to enable the tongue to dart out without their being obliged to open their jaws.

"Nothing is more remarkable than the result of habits in the herbivorous mammals.

"The quadruped to whom circ.u.mstances and the wants which they have created have given for a long period, as also to others of its race, the habit of browsing on gra.s.s, only walks on the ground, and is obliged to rest there on its four feet the greater part of its life, moving about very little, or only to a moderate extent. The considerable time which this sort of creature is obliged to spend each day to fill itself with the only kind of food which it requires, leads it to move about very little, so that it uses its legs only to stand on the ground, to walk, or run, and they never serve to seize hold of or to climb trees.

"From this habit of daily consuming great amounts of food which distend the organs which receive it, and of only moving about to a limited extent, it has resulted that the bodies of these animals are thick, clumsy, and ma.s.sive, and have acquired a very great volume, as we see in elephants, rhinoceroses, oxen, buffaloes, horses, etc.

"The habit of standing upright on their four feet during the greater part of the day to browse has given origin to a thick hoof which envelops the extremity of the digits of their feet; and as their toes are not trained to make any movement, and because they have served no other use than as supports, as also the rest of the leg, the most of them are short, are reduced in size, and even have ended by totally disappearing. Thus in the _pachyderms_, some have five toes enveloped in horn, and consequently their foot is divided into five parts; others have only four, and still others only three. But in the _ruminants_, which seem to be the most ancient of mammals, which are limited only to standing on the ground, there are only two digits on each foot, and only a single one is to be found in the _solipedes_ (the horse, the a.s.s).

"Moreover, among these herbivorous animals, and especially among the ruminants, it has been found that from the circ.u.mstances of the desert countries they inhabit they are incessantly exposed to be the prey of carnivorous animals, and find safety only in precipitous flight. Necessity has forced them to run swiftly; and from the habit they have thus acquired their body has become slenderer and their limbs much more delicate: we see examples in the antelopes, the gazelles, etc.

"Other dangers in our climate to which are continually exposed the deer, the roebuck, the fallow-deer, of perishing from the chase made by man, have reduced them to the same necessity, restrained them to similar habits, and have given rise to the same results.

"The ruminating animals only using their legs as supports, and not having strong jaws, which are only exercised in cutting and browsing on gra.s.s, can only fight by striking with the head, by directing against each other the _vertex_ of this part.

"In their moments of anger, which are frequent, especially among the males, their internal feelings, by their efforts, more strongly urge the fluids toward this part of their head, and it there secretes the corneous matter in some, and osseous matter mixed with corneous matter in others, which gives origin to solid protuberances; hence the origin of horns and antlers, with which most of these animals have the head armed.

"As regards habits, it is curious to observe the results in the special form and height of the giraffe (_camelopardalis_); we know that this animal, the tallest of mammals, inhabits the interior of Africa, and that it lives in localities where the earth, almost always arid and dest.i.tute of herbage, obliges it to browse on the foliage of trees, and to make continual efforts to reach it. It has resulted from this habit, maintained for a long period in all the individuals of its race, that its forelegs have become longer than the hinder ones, and that its neck is so elongated that the giraffe, without standing on its hind legs, raises its head and reaches six meters in height (almost twenty feet).

"Among the birds, the ostriches, deprived of the power of flight, and raised on very long legs, probably owe their singular conformation to a.n.a.logous circ.u.mstances.

"The result of habits is as remarkable in the carnivorous mammals as it is in the herbivorous, but it presents effects of another kind.

"Indeed, those of these mammals which are habituated, as their race, both to climb as well as to scratch or dig in the ground, or to tear open and kill other animals for food, have been obliged to use the digits of their feet; moreover, this habit has favored the separation of their digits, and has formed the claws with which they are armed.

"But among the carnivores there are some which are obliged to run in order to overtake their prey; moreover, since these need and consequently have the habit of daily tearing with their claws and burying them deeply in the body of another animal, to seize and then to tear the flesh, and have been enabled by their repeated efforts to procure for these claws a size and curvature which would greatly interfere in walking or running on stony soil, it has resulted in this case that the animal has been obliged to make other efforts to draw back these too salient and curved claws which would impede it, and hence there has resulted the gradual formation of those special sheaths in which the cats, tigers, lions, etc., withdraw their claws when not in action.

"Thus the efforts in any direction whatever, maintained for a long time or made habitually by certain parts of a living body to satisfy necessities called out by nature or by circ.u.mstances, develop these parts and make them acquire dimensions and a shape which they never would have attained if these efforts had not become the habitual action of the animals which have exercised them. The observations made on all the animals known will everywhere furnish examples.

"Can any of them be more striking than that which the _kangaroo_ offers us? This animal, which carries its young in its abdominal pouch, has adopted the habit of holding itself erect, standing only on its hind feet and tail, and only changing its position by a series of leaps, in which it preserves its erect att.i.tude so as not to injure its young.

"Let us see the result:

"1. Its fore legs, of which it makes little use, and on which it rests only during the instant when it leaves its erect att.i.tude, have never reached a development proportionate to that of the other parts, and have remained thin, very small, and weak;

"2. The hind legs, almost continually in action, both for supporting the body and for leaping, have, on the contrary, obtained a considerable development, and have become very large and strong;

"3. Finally, the tail, which we see is of much use in supporting the animal and in the performance of its princ.i.p.al movements, has acquired at its base a thickness and a strength extremely remarkable.

"These well-known facts are a.s.suredly well calculated to prove what results from the habitual use in the animals of any organ or part; and if, when there is observed in an animal an organ especially well developed, strong, and powerful, it is supposed that its habitual use has not produced it, that its continual disuse will make it lose nothing, and, finally, that this organ has always been such since the creation of the species to which this animal belongs, I will ask why our domestic ducks cannot fly like wild ducks--in a word, I might cite a mult.i.tude of examples which prove the differences in us resulting from the exercise or lack of use of such of our organs, although these differences might not be maintained in the individuals which follow them genetically, for then their products would be still more considerable.

"I shall prove, in the second part, that when the will urges an animal to any action, the organs which should execute this action are immediately provoked by the affluence of subtile fluids (the nervous fluid), which then become the determining cause which calls for the action in question. A mult.i.tude of observations prove this fact, which is now indisputable.

"It results that the multiplied repet.i.tions of these acts of organization strengthen, extend, develop, and even create the organs which are necessary. It is only necessary attentively to observe that which is everywhere occurring to convince ourselves of the well-grounded basis of this cause of organic developments and changes.

"Moreover, every change acquired in an organ by a habit of use sufficient to have produced it is then preserved by heredity (_generation_) if it is common to the individuals which, in fecundation, unite in the reproduction of their species. Finally, this change is propagated, and thus is transmitted to all the individuals which succeed and which are submitted to the same circ.u.mstances, unless they have been obliged to acquire it by the means which have in reality created it.