GERM DOCTRINE OF BONNET. 245 



Fortunately Bonnet's revisions were made in footnotes, dis- 

 tinguishable from the original footnotes by a double obelisk, 

 and in chapters marked as "new." The original text has thus 

 been preserved, so that the reader may often see on the same 

 page the earliest ideas and their latest modifications. 



First Meditations} 



For Bonnet's first reflections on germs, we turn to the first 

 eigJit chapters of the Corps Oiganises. It is worthy of note 

 that the word preformation does not occur in these chapters. 

 We find such expressions as, ^^ exist onginally," " exist already,'' 

 " exist before their birth,'' '^preexist!' The word " preexist " oc- 

 curs three times,^ and elsewhere in this work it seems to be pre- 

 ferred to preformation. The word "miniature" occurs twice.^ 



The idea of an exact image is suggested by such expressions 

 as " dessitie en miniature " ; but, as we have before seen,* Bonnet 

 has left us no excuse for any mistake on this point. In the 

 third chapter (p. 15) the germ is defined as follows: -'The 

 germ is called an outline or a sketch of the organism. That 

 idea may not be sufficiently precise. Either we must under- 

 take to explain the formation of the organs mechanically — 

 what sound philosophy finds to be above its powers — or we 

 must admit that the germ actually contains epitomized all the 

 parts essential to the plant or animal which it represents. 



" The principal difference between the germ and the devel- 

 oped animal is, that the first is composed of elementary par- 

 ticles alone, and that the meshes which they form are as 

 narrow as possible ; while, in the second, the elementary parti- 

 cles are joined to an infinite number of other particles which 



1 " J'ai donne dans les huit premiers chapitres du livre des Corps Organises 

 mes premieres meditations sur la generation et sur le developpement." {Paling., 

 p. 205.) 



2 (i) " Germes preexistants " (p. 20). (2) " Developpement de parties preexis- 

 tantes " (p. 22). (3) " Le germe preexiste dans la femelle a la fecondation " (foot- 

 note, p. 88). 



3 (i) "According to the idea which I have given of the germ, it is an animal, 

 so to speak, in miniature ; it has all the parts tres en petit which the animals of 

 its species have ett grafid'' (p. 23). (2) "I have imagined that the horse is de- 

 signed in miniature " (p. 86). 



* Previous Lecture, pp. 234-37. 



