“Lamarck's attempt to explain the origin of species”

— Charles Lyell

Source: The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man (1863), Ch.20, p. 391-392
Context: I pointed out in 1832, as the two great flaws in Lamarck's attempt to explain the origin of species, first that he had failed to adduce a single instance of the initiation of a new organ in any species of animal or plant; and secondly, that variation, whether taking place in the course of nature or assisted artificially by the breeder and horticulturist, had never yet gone so far as to produce two races sufficiently remote from each other in physiological constitution as to be sterile when intermarried, or, if fertile, only capable of producing sterile hybrids, &c.

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Charles Lyell 103

British lawyer and geologist 1797–1875

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Source: The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man (1863), Ch.21, p. 411
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