164 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 
he contrasts the growth of organic bodies with that 
of minerals. 
“The body of this living being not having been 
formed by juxtaposition, as most mineral substances, 
that isto say, by the external and successive apposi- 
tion of particles aggregated ex masse by attraction, 
but essentially formed by generation, in its principle, 
it has then grown by intussusception—namely, by the 
introduction, the transportation, and the internal ap- 
position of molecules borne along and deposited be- 
tween its parts; whence have resulted the successive 
developments of parts which compose the body of 
this living individual, and from which afterwards also 
result the repairs which preserve it during a limited 
time.” 
Here, as elsewhere in his various works, Lamarck 
brings out the fact, for the first time stated, that 
all material things are either non-living or mineral, 
inorganic; or living, organic. A favorite phrase with 
him is living bodies, or, as we should say, organisms. 
He also is the first one to show that minerals increase 
by juxtaposition, while organisms grow by intussus- 
ception. 
No one would look in his writings for an idea or 
suggestion of the principle of differentiation of parts 
or organs as we now understand it, or for the idea of 
the physiological division of labor; these were re- 
served for the later periods of embryology and 
morphology. 
Origin of the First Vital Function—We will now 
return to the germ. After it had begun spontaneous 
existence, Lamarck proceeds to say : 
