lew@ihuxr.UUCP (11/13/83)
The question of the correlation of religiosity with other personal traits leads me to relate the following story concerning Georges Cuvier and his lifelong feud with Lamarck, of "inheritance of aquired characteristics" fame. I mentioned in another article that Cuvier was devoutly religious, but this didn't prevent him from exhibiting a certain vicious streak in his intellectual combat. Lamarck suffered from a congenital disease which was causing him to go blind. During a public debate, Cuvier suggested that Lamarck's physical blindness was perhaps due to atrophy since he so obviously failed to use his vision to see the truth before him. Of course, this attack was to no possible purpose since it confused the metaphor with the fact. Actually, Lamarck did apply his theory to his condition to the extent that he had his children do eye exercises in hopes of them avoiding blindness. When Lamarck died, Cuvier was among those solicited for a eulogy to be included in a memorial publication of the Academy of Science. Ignoring the convention of posthumous reconciliation, Cuvier wrote a scathing attack on Lamarck's ideas, which had to be excluded to avoid scandal. And you think the net gets rough! Lew Mammel, Jr. ihuxr!lew