382 BUFFON 



philosophical ; the whole body or any part of it may 

 be such a mould. ^ He boldly affirms that new plants 

 and animals can arise by the fortuitous association of 

 his organic molecules. Mushrooms, internal parasites 

 and earthworms are, he says, generated spontaneously.^ 



This theory of organic molecules undoubtedly contains 

 hints for a true doctrine of cells. Buffon seems to teach 

 that both animals and plants are built up of cell-units ; 

 that the cells may exist as separate organisms, or move 

 about within some more complex organism, or be com- 

 bined into tissues, or contain smaller organised units, 

 such as we now call plastids. He is within sight of the 

 truth that both germ and sperm, when reduced to their 

 lowest terms, are cells. It might seem necessary to give 

 BufFon handsome credit for such anticipations as these, 

 but we are checked by reflecting (1) that he did not 

 discover or observe for himself any of the cell-structures 

 which he mentions ; and (2) that Buflbn's theory, in 

 the completest form which it ever attained, was quite 

 as likely to lead a student wrong as to lead him right. 

 He never attempted to verify or correct his specula- 

 tions by such experiments as Spallanzani devised — 

 experiments which demolished Buffon's supposed proofs 

 of spontaneous generation. 



There is a strong, but merely superficial resemblance 

 between Buflbn's organic molecules and Darwin's gem- 

 mules, and Darwin found whole pages of Buflbn laughably 

 like his own.^ 



1 Hist. Nat., Vol. II, pp. 41-2. » Hist. Nat., Vol. IV, p. 335, &c. 



^Hist. Nat., Vol. II, pp. 322, &c. 



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