BONNET'S THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 23 1 



was yet only an auxiliary hypothesis, to be used or laid aside 

 at convenience. Its prominence as a butt of ridicule has 

 thrown its companion hypothesis quite into oblivion. I refer 

 to the hypothesis of "the dissemination of germs,'' which Bon- 

 net always held in reserve for emergencies not provided for 

 in '' emboitementy This hypothesis underlies no inconsider- 

 able part of Bonnet's philosophy, and figures prominently in 

 his ideas of regeneration and propagation by buds and slips. 

 The more important modifications of views on the germ are 

 connected with this same hypothesis. 



We have, therefore, to recognize three primary parts in 

 Bonnet's theory, namely, .preformation (of the adult organism 

 with all its essential parts), embottement and dissemination, and 

 to bear in mind that the first stood as principal, the second 

 and third as ancillaries. The latter, as employed by Bonnet, 

 had no use or meaning, except to affirm and sustain the former. 

 Holding firmly to emboitemejtt and dissemination and abandon- 

 ing preformation would be a monstrous self-stultification. To 

 this it may be replied that no one has charged Bonnet with 

 complete abandonment of the idea of preformation, but only 

 with a modification of his definition of the germ. But a modi- 

 fication that reduced "evolution" to a point where it could no 

 longer be distinguished from " epigenesis " (if the old epigen- 

 esis is meant), would seem to fall but little short of com- 

 plete surrender. 



Preformation. 



The whole question turns on what preformation meant to 

 Bonnet. Preformation may stand for ideas that are quite dis- 

 tinct, or even antagonistic. As understood generally by the 

 evolutionists of the eighteenth century, it was the negation of 

 all netv formation. It was the dogma of original creation, 

 according to which all real formation was completed at the 

 beginning of the. world. The creative power was believed 

 to have acted once for all, and to have since taken " Ferien," 

 as Burdach expresses it. This was syngenesis versus epi- 

 genesis, original formation of all at one time in opposition 

 to new formation all the time. This conception of preforma- 



