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Oltre il mito: Lamarck e le scienze naturali del suo tempo

PIETRO CORSI, Oltre il mito: Lamarck e le scienze naturali del suo tempo, Bologna, II Mulino, 1983, 8vo, pp. 432, L.30,000 (paperback). While Charles Darwin still awaits a satisfactory scientific biography, four studies have appeared recently which illuminate the position of Lamarck in the history of science. While two of them, by R. Burckhardt and L. Jordanova, come from the Anglo-Saxon world, the other two come from Italy: Corsi's work has a predecessor in a monograph by Giulio Barsanti entitled Dalla storia naturale alla storia della natura. Italian history of science is, with a few notable exceptions, written by historians with a philosophical background, and Lamarck has always been more approachable from that standpoint than Darwin, which perhaps helps to explain the vitality of Lamarckian studies in Italy. Corsi's important purpose is to outline Lamarck's contribution to natural science in its scientific context. He approaches Lamarck not as an isolated thinker but as an outstandingly important episode in a flow which he rightly depicts as much wider and more varied than we usually think. Lamarck's work is seen as closely related to, on the one hand, that ofthe followers of Buffon, especially Jean-Claude de la Metherie, and, on the other, to the views later expressed by E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Further, Lamarck's work on transmutation is seen as inextricably connected with his early work in geology, chemistry, and physics. Corsi depicts with clarity the connexions between the organic and inorganic foci of Lamarck's research. In some respects, those parts of the book dealing with natural science in Lamarck's time are even more interesting than those treating Lamarck himself, and it is perhaps a pity that the book could not have covered that field even more thoroughly. For, reading this book, one feels that there are very few historians of science whose mastery of a whole period is as evident as that of Corsi. The only weakness in the work, occasioned by its concentration on the figure of Lamarck, is that it does not give sufficient prominence to his great contemporary, Georges Cuvier. Cuvier may have been unpleasantly preoccupied with the politics of the French academic world, but his influence on all major aspects of nineteenth-century life sciences was as great as that of anyone, including giants like von Baer and, later, Charles Darwin. In short, this is an excellent book, which places Corsi in the front rank alongside Giuliano Pancaldi, Giulio Barsanti, Antonello La Vergata, and other young Italian authors. It seems that English-speakers have to choose between learning Italian and expediting translations of their works. Mario A. di Gregorio Darwin College, Cambridge