Evolution, Old & New: Or, the Theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck,: As Compared with That of Charles Darwin

Samuel Butler enters the evolution debate with a controversial claim: Charles Darwin's mechanis tic natural selection misses something essential about life. In this spirited 19th-century polemic, Butler places Darwin's theory alongside those of Buffon, his own grandfather Erasmus Darwin, and the French biologist Lamarck, arguing that only Lamarck properly accounts for purpose and design in the living world. Butler sees inheritance of acquired characteristics not as a mere mechanism but as evidence that organisms shape their own destiny across generations. Written with literary verve rare among scientific critics, this book captures a pivotal moment when biology was deciding whether life was blind chance or purposeful becoming. Butler lost the argument to history, but his critique resonates with modern debates about directed evolution and the limits of neo-Darwinism.