1 62 THE MECHANISM OF LIFE 



been formed, and are still being formed to-day, by spontaneous 

 generation." 



Lamarck himself gives a resume of his doctrine in the 

 following six propositions : — 



1. "All the organized bodies of our globe are veritable 

 productions of Nature, which she has successively formed 

 during the lapse of ages. 



2. " Nature began, and still recommences day by day, with 

 the production of the simplest organic forms. These so-called 

 spontaneous generations are her direct work, the first sketches 

 as it were of organization. 



3. "The first sketches of an animal or a vegetable 

 growth being begun under favourable conditions, the faculties 

 of commencing life and of organic movement thus estab- 

 lished have gradually developed little by little the various 

 parts and organs, which in process of time have become 

 diversified. 



4. " The faculty of growth is inherent in every part of an 

 organized body ; it is the primary effect of life. This faculty 

 of growth has given rise to the various modes of multiplication 

 and regeneration of the individual, and by its means any 

 progress which may have been acquired in the composition and 

 forms of the organism has been preserved. 



5. " All living things which exist at the present day have 

 been successively formed by this means, aided by a long lapse 

 of time, by favourable conditions, and by the changes on the 

 surface of the globe— in a word, by the power which new situa- 

 tions and new habits have of modifying the organs of a body 

 which is endowed with life. 



C. "Since all living things have undergone more or less 

 change in their organization, the species which have been thus 

 insensibly and successively produced can have but a relative 

 constancy, and can be of no very great antiquity." 



The admirable work of Lamarck was absolutely neglected 

 in France, where it was treated as unworthy even of consider- 

 ation. This neglect profoundly afflicted Lamarck, who 

 gradually sank a victim to the opposition of his contem- 

 poraries, lie left, however, one disciple, Etienne Jeoffroy St. 



