158 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 
Only the closing years of the century witnessed 
the rise of the experimental methods in physics and 
chemistry, owing to the brilliant work of Priestley 
and of Lavoisier. The foundations of general physi- 
ology had been laid by Haller,* those of embryology 
to a partial extent by Wolff,t Von Baer’s work not 
appearing until 1829, the year in which Lamarck died. 
Spontaneous Generation.—Lamarck’s views on spon- 
taneous generation are stated in his Recherches sur 
l’Organisation des Corps vivans (1802). He begins 
by referring to his statement in a previous work ¢ 
that life may be suspended for a time and then go 
on again. 
“Here I would remark it (life) can be produced 
( préparee) both by an organic act and by nature her- 
self, without any act of this kind, in such a way that 
certain bodies without possessing life can be prepared 
to receive it, by an impression whzch indicates in these 
bodies the first traces of organization.” 
We will not enter upon an exposition of his views 
on the nature of sexual generation and of fecunda- 
tion, the character of his vapeur subtile (aura vitalts) 
which he supposes to take an active part in the act of 
fertilization, because the notion is quite as objection- 
able as'that of the vital force which he rejects; dle 
goes on to say, however, that we cannot penetrate 
farther into the wonderful mystery of fecundation, but 
the opinions he expresses lead to the view that ‘nature 
* Llementa physioloviae corporis humant, iv. Lausanne, 1762. 
+ Zheorta generationis, 1774. 
Mémoires de Physique (1797), p. 250. 
YSUq 97), P 
