278 LAMARCK, AIS LIFE: AND WORK 
liarities of form, of color, of size, and often even of 
differences only perceived in the aspect of the indi- 
vidual compared with other individuals which are 
related to it the more by their relations, are seized 
upon by naturalists to establish specific differences ; 
so that, the slightest varieties being reckoned as 
species, our catalogues of species grow infinitely 
great, and the name of the productions of nature of 
the most interest to us are, so to speak, buried in 
these enormous lists, become very difficult to find, 
because now the objects are mostly only determined 
by characters which our senses can scarcely enable us 
to perceive. 
‘“ Meanwhile we should remember that nothing of 
all this exists in nature; that she knows neither classes, 
orders, genera, nor species, in spite of all the founda- 
tion which the portion of the natural series which our 
collection contains has seemed to afford them ; and 
that of organic or living bodies there are, in reality, 
only individuals, and among different races which 
cradually pass (zwancent) into all degrees of organiza- 
tion” (p. 14). 
On p. 70 he speaks of the animal chain from monad 
to man, ascending from the most simple to the most 
complex. The monad is the most simple, the most 
like agerm of living bodies, and from its nature passes 
to the volvoces, proteus, vibrios; from them nature 
and 
arrives at the production of “ polypes rotiféres ”’ 
then at “ Radiaires,” worms, Arachnida, Crustacea, 
and Cirripedes. 
