Finally the principle of law of battle, or the combat between the males for the possession of the females, with the result "that the strongest and most active animal should propagate the species," is not hinted at by Lamarck. This view, on the contrary, is one of the fundamental principles of the doctrine of natural selection, and was made use of by Charles Darwin and others. So also Erasmus anticipated Charles Darwin in the third great want of "security," in seeking which the forms and colors of animals have been modified. This is an anticipation of the principle of protective mimicry, so much discussed in these days by Darwin, Wallace, and others, and which was not even mentioned by Lamarck. From the internal evidence of Lamarck's writings we therefore infer that he was in no way indebted to Erasmus Darwin for any hints or ideas.[157] FOOTNOTES: [152] Vol. ii., 3d edition. Our references are to this edition. [153] Krause, _The Scientific Works of Erasmus Darwin_, footnote on p. 134: "See 'Athenæum,' March, 1875, p. 423." [154] _Zoonomia_, i., p. 505 (3d edition, p. 335). [155] The subject of protective mimicry is more explicitly stated by Dr. Darwin in his earlier book, _The Loves of the Plants_, and, as Krause states, though Rösel von Rosenhof in his _Insekten-Belustigungen_ (Nurnberg, 1746) describes the resemblance which geometric caterpillars, and also certain moths when in repose, present to dry twigs, and thus conceal themselves, "this group of phenomena seems to have been first regarded from a more general point of view by Dr. Darwin." [156] _Zoonomia_, vol. i., p. 170. [157] Mr. Samuel Butler, in his _Evolution, Old and New_, taking it for granted that Lamarck was "a partisan of immutability till 1801," intimates that "the secret of this sudden conversion must be found in a French translation by M. Deleuze of Dr. Darwin's poem, _The Loves of the Plants_, which appeared in 1800. Lamarck--the most eminent botanist of his time--was sure to have heard of and seen this, and would probably know the translator, who would be able to give him a fair idea of the _Zoonomia_" (p. 258). But this notion seems disproved by the fact that Lamarck delivered his famous lecture, published in 1801, during the last of April or in the first half of May, 1800. The views then presented must have been formed in his mind at least for some time--perhaps a year or more--previous, and were the result of no sudden inspiration, least of all from any information given him by Deleuze, whom he probably never met. If Lamarck had actually seen and read the _Zoonomia_ he would have been manly enough to have given him credit for any novel ideas. Besides that, as we have already seen, the internal evidence shows that Lamarck's views were in some important points entirely different from those of Erasmus Darwin, and were conceptions original with the French zoölogist.