il6 THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



view combine with the spermatozoa to form the new individual. In connexion 

 with the question of evolution, reproduction, and growth, BufFon sets up a 

 very abstract and difficult hypothesis concerning the mutual connexion of the 

 different parts within the organism; he believes that each individual repre- 

 sents a "moule interieur," by which he apparently means the constant form of 

 every living creature, attained with the co-operation of the organs, which 

 are fed and grow by assimilating these living particles that fill the whole 

 of nature and are the one essential in the assimilation of food — of both 

 animals and vegetables — in growth, and in reproduction. This theory of 

 living particles thus forms the very corner-stone of Buffon's biological 

 speculation and is both its strength and its weakness; with its aid he avoids 

 the difficulty of explaining the origin of life without the assumption of a 

 supernatural act of creation — he does not expressly deny such an act, it is 

 true (that would have been too daring for his age), but it is quite obvious 

 that he will have nothing to do with it — on the other hand, he had to make 

 good with assumptions which very much resemble the ancient spontaneous- 

 generation hypotheses, which had already been rejected by the biologists of 

 the seventeenth century. At any rate, of greater value than the results of these 

 speculations is his criticism of the actual method of natural research, which 

 even in modern times makes profitable reading; his own theories he in no 

 wise propounds as if they were proved truths, and his warnings against con- 

 fusing hypotheses and facts many a modern biologist might well take seri- 

 ously to heart. 



Besides these purely biological questions Buffon also discusses psy- 

 chological problems. His speculations on animal psychology are, however, 

 of little importance; he certainly admits the existence of intelligence in 

 animals, in contrast to Descartes, but he denies that they possess memory 

 and reflection. On the other hand he has some striking observations to make 

 on the domestic animals' intellectual dependence upon human training, as 

 well as on their sense-impressions and the varying power of the latter. 



On man 

 Like Linn^us, Buffon treats man as a natural-history subject and gives a 

 detailed description of man's evolutional history, alimentary conditions, 

 and habits of life, which has justly become famous, not merely for its impor- 

 tant formal merits, but also as being the first attempt at anthropology in the 

 modern sense. Though human anatomy had already been thoroughly dealt 

 with in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, nevertheless a universal 

 treatment of man in regard to his entire relation to nature was something 

 quite new. From an anatomical and physiological point of view he certainly 

 has not very much that is fresh to relate, but he conscientiously and critically 

 summarizes the existing scientific material; he gives an account of the devel- 

 opment of man from embryonic life through the various ages; he tries to 



