242 BIOLOGICAL LECTURES. 



terest chiefly as exhibiting an instructive stage in the develop- 

 ment of our conceptions of organic phenomena, and as helping 

 to define the antithetical standpoint of to-day. 



A system of philosophy supported by such men as Malpighi, 

 Swammerdam, Leeuwenhoeck, Leibnitz, Bonnet, Haller, and 

 Cuvier; supposed to have been modified in the hands of its 

 chief expounder until at last it ceased to differ essentially from 

 epigenesis ; and frequently referred to as the precursor of ideas 

 now engaging the attention of many eminent biologists such 

 a system, whatever its intrinsic merits, cannot be devoid of in- 

 terest to those who realize that the present is born of the past 

 - of the false as well as the true. 



Bonnet's Writings. 



As we have to follow "the march of ideas" in Bonnet's 

 works in order to note the modifications introduced, it may 

 save some confusion if we acquaint ourselves with the histori- 

 cal order of the writings to be consulted. 



Bonnet's meditations upon germs and the phenomena of 

 development cover a period of about thirty-five years, extend- 

 ing from his earliest philosophical composition, in 1 747, to the 

 latest revision in 1783. Les CEuvres d' Histoire Naturelle et 

 de Philosophic de Charles Bonnet were collected at Neuf- 

 chatel, in 1779-83, in eight vols., 4 ; and in 18 vols., 8. It 

 is to the complete quarto edition that my references are made. 1 



1 To the first volume of this edition is prefixed a list of Bonnet's writings, from 

 which seven memoirs published in the Recueil des Savants Etrangers, and ten 

 memoirs published in Rozier's Journal de Physique (1774-1777), are omitted. 



LIST OF WORKS. 

 CHARLES BONNET (1720-1793). 



I. Traite d"* Insectologie, 2 vols., 8, Paris, 1745 ; last ed. 1779. 

 II. Recherches de F Usage des Feuilles, 40, Gottingen and Leyden, 1754. Edi- 

 tion of 1779 contains the memoirs published in the Recueil des Savants 

 Etrangers. 



III. Considerations sur les Corps Organises, 2 vols., 8, Amsterdam, 1762 ; re- 

 printed 1768, revised 1779. 



IV. Contemplation de la Nature, 2 vols., 8, Amsterdam, 1764-65; reprinted 

 1769, revised 1781. 



