240 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



occupied. Consequently they reproduce on a small 

 scale the internal mould or cast of which they them- 

 selves had formed a part. We see that in this 

 hypothesis, the new being can only be formed by the 

 aid of materials which have been directly furnished 

 to it by each of the organs of the parents, and 

 consequently the children of a one-armed parent 

 could not possess two arms. 



This objection, suggested by common sense, did not 

 prevent the ideas of Buffon from being adopted or 

 reproduced with certain modifications even in our own 

 day, under the sanction of several distinguished 

 physiologists. Oken, amongst others, the patriarch 

 of the Natur-Philosophie school, admits the existence 

 of a primordial mucilage very similar to the primor- 

 dial matter of the French naturalist, whilst he assigns 

 to the Infusoria a part which is very nearly iden- 

 tical with that of organic molecules. According to 

 him all living beings are merely aggregations of 

 Monads, chained together by an archetype, which 

 gives to them their form, and if the Monads them- 

 selves appear to be produced in animal or vegetable 

 infusions, it is only in consequence of their having 

 been set at liberty. 



In the doctrine of epigenesis, or super-formation 

 of parts, which is almost universally admitted in the 

 present day, it is held that no appearance of the new 

 animal is to be found in the perfect impregnated egg 

 before the commencement of incubation, but that 

 when the formative process is established under the 

 necessary favourable circumstances, the parts of the 

 embryo are gradually put together or built up by 



