276 EVOLUTION IN BIOLOGY. [LECT. 



doctrine of epigenesis, thus advocated by Harvey, was 

 controverted, on the ground of direct observation, by 

 Malpighi, who affirmed that the body of the chick is 

 to be seen in the egg, before the punctum sanguineum 

 makes its appearance. But, from this perfectly correct 

 observation a conclusion which is by no means 

 warranted was drawn ; namely, that the chick, as a 

 whole, really exists in the egg antecedently to incuba- 

 tion ; and that what, happens in the course of the latter 

 process is no addition of new parts, " alias post alias 

 natas," as Harvey puts it, but a simple expansion, or 

 unfolding, of the organs which already exist, though 

 they are too small and inconspicuous to be discovered. 

 The weight of Malpighi's observations therefore fell 

 into the scale of that doctrine which Harvey terms 

 metamorphosis, in contradistinction to epigenesis. 



The views of Malpighi were warmly welcomed, on 

 philosophical grounds, by Leibnitz, 1 who found in them 

 a support to his hypothesis of monads, and by Male- 



1 "Cependant, pour revenir aux formes ordinaires ou aux ames 

 materielles, cette duree qu'il leur faut attribuer a la place de celle qu'on 

 avoit attribute aux atomes pourroit faire douter si elles ne vont pas de 

 corps en corps ; ce qui seroit la metempsychose, a peu pres comme 

 quelques philosophes ont cru la transmission du mouvement et celle'des 

 especes. Mais cette imagination est bien eloignee de la nature des 

 choses. 11 n'y a point de tel passage ; et c'est ici ou les transformations 

 de Messieurs Swammerdam, Malpighi, et Leewenhoek, qui sont des plus 

 excellens observateurs de notre terns, sont venues a mon secours, et 

 in' ont fait admettre plus aisement, que 1'animal, et toute autre substance 

 organisee ne commence point lorsque nous le croyons, et que sa genera- 

 tion apparente n'est qu'une developpement et une espece d'augmenta- 

 tion. Aussi ai je remarque que 1'auteur de la " Recherche de la Verite," 

 M. Regis, M. Hartsoeker, et d'autres habiles hommes n'ont pas ete fort 

 eloignes de ce sentiment." Leibnitz, " Systeme nouveau de la Nature," 



