"The hypothesis of Lamarck--that progressive changes in species have been produced by the attempts of animals to increase the development of their own organs and thus modify their structure and habits--has been repeatedly and easily refuted by all writers on the subject of varieties and species, . . . but the view here developed renders such a hypothesis quite unnecessary . . . The powerful retractile talons of the falcon and the cat tribes have not been produced or increased by the volition of those animals, . . . neither did the giraffe acquire its long neck by desiring to reach the foliage of the more lofty shrubs, and constantly stretching its neck for this purpose, but because any varieties which occurred among its antitypes with a longer neck than usual _at once secured a fresh range of pasture over the same ground as their short-necked companions_, _and on the first scarcity of food were thereby enabled to outlive them_" (italics in original). {223a} This is absolutely the neo-Darwin doctrine, and a denial of the mainly fortuitous character of the variations in animal and vegetable forms cuts at its root. That Mr. Wallace, after years of reflection, still adhered to this view, is proved by his heading a reprint of the paragraph just quoted from {223b} with the words "Lamarck's hypothesis very different from that now advanced;" nor do any of his more recent works show that he has modified his opinion. It should be noted that Mr. Wallace does not call his work Contributions to the Theory of Evolution, but to that of Natural Selection. Mr. Darwin, with characteristic caution, only commits himself to saying that Mr. Wallace has arrived at _almost_ (italics mine) the same general conclusions as he, Mr. Darwin, has done; {223c} but he still, as in 1859, declares that it would be "a serious error to suppose that the greater number of instincts have been acquired by habit in one generation and then transmitted by inheritance to succeeding generations," {223d} and he still comprehensively condemns the "well-known doctrine of inherited habit, as advanced by Lamarck." {224}