278 EVOLUTION IN BIOLOGY. [LECT. 



restored to its primitive condition of a germ ; "just as 

 by extracting from a bone the calcareous substance 

 which is the source of its hardness, it is reduced to its 

 primitive state of gristle or membrane." 1 



"Evolution" and "development" are, for Bonnet, 

 synonymous terms ; and since by " evolution " he 

 means simply the expansion of that which was invisible 

 into visibility, he was naturally led to the conclusion, 

 at which Leibnitz had arrived by a different line of 

 reasoning, that no such thing as generation, in the 

 proper sense of the word, exists in nature. The 

 growth of an organic being is simply a process of 

 enlargement, as a particle of dry gelatine may be 

 swelled up by the intussusception of water ; its death 

 is a shrinkage, such as the swelled jelly might under- 

 go on desiccation. Nothing really new is produced in 

 the living world, but the germs which develop have 

 existed since the beginning of things; and nothing 

 really dies, but, when what we call death takes place, 

 the living thing shrinks back into its germ state. 2 



1 " Considerations sur les Corps organises," chap. x. 



2 Bonnet had the courage of his opinions, and in the " Palingenesie 

 Philosophique," part vi. chap, iv., he develops a hypothesis which he 

 terms " evolution naturelle ;" and which, making allowance for his 

 peculiar views of the nature of generation, bears no small resemblance 

 to what is understood by " evolution " at the present day : 



" Si la volonte divine a cree par un seul Acte rUniversalite" des 

 etres, d'ou venoient ces plantes et ces animaux dont Moyse nous decrit 

 la Production au troisieme et au cinquieme jour du renouvellement de 

 notre monde 1 



" Abuserois-je de la liberte de conjectures si je disois, que les Plantes 

 et les Animaux qui existent aujourd'hui sont parvenus par une sorte 

 d'evolution naturelle des Etres organises qui peuplaient ce premier 

 Monde, sorti immediatement des MAINS du CREATEUR ? . . . 



