THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE 



are widely disseminated in a partially developed state 

 through the air and water, and will become alive 

 when they fall into an organism similar to that from 

 which they came ; thus constituting all surrounding 

 nature into a vast reservoir for their conservation. 

 Opposed to the doctrine of evolution was that held by 

 Buffon " Paccolement. " He imagined a primitive 

 organic matter, distinct from inorganic matter, com- 

 posed of living molecules, incorruptible and always 

 active. These molecules, spread everywhere, served 

 for nourishment and growth. When the growth is 

 finished the overplus of molecules is sent from all 

 parts of the body to a reservoir or special organ. 

 Those which come from a given organism recipro- 

 cally attract each other, so as to produce a sort of 

 miniature thereof. Thus the organs of the new beings 

 are produced by the regular and harmonious accre- 

 tions of the molecules in excess, and thus bear the 

 impress of the parents. 



These doctrines of evolution, as then understood, 

 and of Paccolement, founded only on imagination, 

 have given way to the third doctrine then held, of 

 even older date than either, that of " Epigenesis," or 

 that in which the germ is actually procreated by the 

 parent plants or animals, not simply expanded or un- 

 folded. It was held by Hippocrates of old, by Har- 

 vey, by Etienne Geoffrey Saint Hillaire, and is now 



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