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Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire: A Visionary Naturalist

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The history of biology and evolutionary theory is rarely told properly or in full and the myths surrounding Darwin tend to drive out the complex development of the idea of evolution beginning in the eighteenth century. Beside Lamarck there is also the figure of Geoffroy Saint- Hilaire whose early intimations of embryological themes is only now being confirmed in the age of the genome and homeobox genes. This detailed history of the period of the early nineteenth century, including the account of the debate with Cuvier, should hopefully induce the writing of more accurate histories of the development of evolutionary biology. Perhaps someday it will dawn on someone that Darwin's theory was, if anything, a reductionist oversimplification that most biologists were too savvy to fall for.