462 HISTORY OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



necessity, he did well to substitute for the extant 

 theories, already superannuated and confessedly im- 

 perfect, conjectures more original and more pro- 

 bable. Without dissenting from this view, we may 

 observe, that Buffon's theory, like those which 

 preceded it, is excusable, and even deserving of 

 admiration, so far as it groups the facts consis- 

 tently ; because in doing this, it exhibits the neces- 

 sity, which the physiological speculator ought to feel, 

 of aspiring to definite and solid general principles ; 

 and that thus, though the theory may not be esta- 

 blished as true, it may be useful by bringing into 

 view the real nature and application of such prin- 

 ciples. 



It is, therefore, according to our views, unphilo- 

 sophical to derive despair, instead of hope, from the 

 imperfect success of Buffon and his predecessors. 

 Yet this is what is done by the writer to whom 

 we refer. "For me," says he 15 , "I avow that, after 

 having long meditated on the system of Buffon, 

 a system so remarkable, so ingenious, so well 

 matured, so wonderfully connected in all its parts, 

 at first sight so probable; I confess that, after 

 this long study, and the researches which it re- 

 quires, I have conceived in consequence, a distrust 

 of myself, a skepticism, a disdain of hypothetical 

 systems, a decided predilection and exclusive taste 

 for pure and rational observation, in short, a dis- 

 heartening, which I had never felt before." 

 15 Bourdon, p. 274. 



