BUFFON 381 



cells of which the tissues of animals and plants are 

 composed, in addition to corpuscles which circulate in 

 the blood, sperms, and bacteria. Out of these he seems 

 to have framed his organic molecules, concerning which 

 he proceeds to lay down a number of confident state- 

 ments. He tells us that they are primitive and incor- 

 ruptible ; that they exist both in plants and in animals ; 

 that they travel about the organism, but may collect in 

 special reservoirs. Nutrition and reproduction are due 

 to their combination ; the destruction of the organism 

 may result from their dissolution ; they explain the 

 regeneration of lost parts. ^ 1'hey are plentiful in the 

 chyle and other products of digestion, in the seeds of 

 plants, in the eggs and fertilising fluids of animals, 

 and in the interstices of the teeth (this last points to 

 Leeuwenhoek's bacteria). They increase in number and 

 activity under the influence of light, a remark which 

 may have been suggested by observation of the green 

 growth which forms in vessels exposed to the sun's 

 rays. The moving particles seen in animal infusions are 

 organic molecules set free by the decay of the tissues. 

 Fermentation is perhaps set up by the activity of the 

 same molecules. Infusions of potent drugs swarm with 

 the molecules, which appear far sooner than in ordinary 

 infusions. The poison of vipers depends upon molecules 

 in an exalted state. 



New individuals originate in masses of organic mole- 

 cules, and take their shape from moulds existing in the 

 parent. These moulds determine not only the external 

 form, but also the internal structure of the new indi- 

 vidual, a statement which has its mechanical difficulties. 

 We perceive at length that Buffon's moulds are purely 



1 R^umur had forty years earlier mainUined that when a omyflah loMt » 

 limb, the egg or germ of a n6w one germinatat and davalopat (JfAn. Atad, 



iSci., 1712). 



