Indeed, one may readily account for the resemblance to modern views, seeing that all speculative systems of science must to some extent run in parallel, inasmuch as they begin with the facts of common experience.

Nor were his speculations in any degree stimulating to theoretical science.
Many of his mechanisms in which the ether operates on a plane of equality with the air can only be regarded with amusement.

The whole of his elaborate schemes of color classification may be instanced as forerunners of the methods commercially in vogue to-day; they are not the harbingers of methods scientifically in vogue.

One looks in vain for research adequate to carry the load of so much speculative text.
"Even if we realize that the beginnings of science could but be made amid such groping in the dark, it is a pity that a man of Lamarck's genius, which seems to have been destitute of the instincts of an experimentalist, should have lavished so much serious thought in evolving a system of chemical physics out of himself." The chemical status of Lamarck's writings is thus stated by Professor H.
Carrington Bolton in a letter dated Washington, D.C., February 9, 1900: "Excuse delay in replying to your inquiry as to the chemical status of the French naturalist, Lamarck.

Not until this morning have I found it convenient to go to the Library of Congress.