230 BIOLOGICAL LECTURES. 



formation. Is it probable that he tripped on so funda- 

 mental a matter without knowing it ? Is it not more probable 

 that Prof. Huxley has put an 'interpretation upon his words 

 which he would have most emphatically disputed } Is not the 

 suicidal concession imputed to Bonnet, after all, merely an 

 inference to which his words were liable, only when isolated 

 from the context and construed to the mind of the reader 

 rather than to the intention of the author } 



Although the words "evolution in the modified sense adopted 

 in Bonnet's later writings," might suggest, if they do not 

 distinctly imply, that Bonnet finally resigned himself to a 

 view hardly distinguishable from epigenesis ; still I am in- 

 clined to think that Huxley only intended to hold Bonnet 

 responsible for a definition, himself alone responsible for the 

 conclusion supposed to be involved in it. 



Primary Hypotheses of Bonnet' s Theory. 



We might appeal at once to Bonnet's definitions of germs; 

 but it will be better, I think, to consider first the general prin- 

 ciples and bearings of the theory as a whole, reserving the 

 definitions to be examined in the light of the ideas underlying 

 them. Let us see what were the primary hypotheses of Bon- 

 net's system of philosophy. Huxley has already pointed out 

 the distinction to be kept in mind between emboitement and 

 prefonnation. These two hypotheses do not stand alone, how- 

 ever, neither are they of equal importance. Preformation, as I 

 have already said, was the central idea — the very heart of 

 the whole system of hypotheses — just that part, in fact, on 

 the maintenance of which hung the life and use of all the 

 other parts, and which was, therefore, most carefully guarded. 

 Other parts could be modified, supplemented, or even wholly 

 abandoned, if need be; but whatever the changes adopted, 

 they were always measured to the necessity of keeping the 

 preformation idea inviolate. 



The doctrine of emboitement, although regarded by Bonnet 

 as "one of the greatest triumphs of the mind over the senses," 

 and although filling a very conspicuous place in his speculation, 



