is its solidification ability, expressed in plants and 

 animals in different degrees. His predecessors also mentioned 

 this character, although they did not consider it as the 

 principle of development. Thus, Needham spoke about the power 

 of resistance, by means of which the particles of matter 

 joined together. Wolff wrote: "In one unbearably tangled book, 

 I could not find the author's reference to the power of 

 resistance that sharply differs from the power of linkage, 

 which is characteristic for all bodies of nature" (§ 234). 

 Wolff hurled reproaches at authors who wrote about the 

 development of an epigenetic spirit, who did not give any 

 definite formative principle, and who "spoke about it as 

 Galen had about digestion, when he confirmed that the last is 

 conditioned by digestible power" (5 235) . 



Contrary to his Latin dissertation, where Wolff 

 criticized his epigenetic predecessors, in the German 

 he considered in detail the opinions of opponents of the 

 epigenesis theory, the supporters of preformation. Without 

 touching upon the opinions of Haller, whom he respected, 

 he directed his polemical discussion mainly at Bonnet, whose 

 book was published two years before the publication of 

 Wolff's German work. Wolff sharply attacked the theory of 

 preformation, calling it a chimera, an idea taken from air. 

 The nature of preformation he called pitiful and even simply 

 rubbish. He decidedly rejected the idea; instead, in the 

 German book, he defended the theory of epigenesis. The 

 understanding of epigenesis, only casually mentioned in the 

 Latin work, is widely used in the German. Characterizing 

 epigenesis as formation of organic bodies, Wolff represented 

 it as the real antithesis of preformation. While the latter 

 hypothesis denies that the body undergoes formation (Ed. : 

 since it is already preformed), epigenesis confirms this 

 formation. Recognition that the hypothesis of predelineation 

 is false at the same time confirms the truth of epigenesis 

 (pp. 61 and 62). Epigenesis is real development in character- 

 istics of all natural phenomena, including inorganic phenomena 

 The rainbow appears suddenly, but it does not pre-exist in 

 latent form. Epigenesis, as true development, appears in the 

 organized bodies of nature, as is clear in examples of plant 

 development from seeds and animals from ova. 



63 



