The Nineteenth Century, a Period of Change 147
A Summary View of the Early Nineteenth Century
It appears that while many naturalists were fixists, the leading criterion for species
identification or explanation was derived from the descent of similar forms. Apart
from Agassiz, nobody seems, however, to have inferred from fixism, or the pious
creationism that was the usual form of words used, that species had essences or even
that variation was firmly limited. In this period, variation within species was a real
research difficulty. Cuvier’s definition was widely disseminated and repeated, and
Linnaeus’ almost taken as something too obvious, and a little over-religious, to men-
tion. This background is something shared by Darwin, and serves to highlight both
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