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■268 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



d'un multitude d^Etres organises, appelles a se succeder 



dans toute la duree de siecles Le Soleil un million 



de fois plus grand que la Terre a pour extreme im 

 globule de lumiere, dont plusieurs milliards entrent 

 a la fois dans Tcci] de Fanimal vingt-sept millions de 



fois plus petit qu^un Ciron Mais la raison perce 



de lumiere elle voit 



encore au dela de ce 

 sortir un autre Univer 



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Considerations sur les corps organisees.' Amsterdam, 1772. 



« On this subject Mr. G. H. Lewes writes with his usual felicity:— 

 '^ Although we can only by a fallacy maintain the oak to be contained 

 in the acorn, or the animal contained in the ovum, the fallacy is so 

 natural, and, indeed, so difficult to escape, that there is no ground for 

 surprise when physiologists, on first learning something of development, 



• are found maintaining that the perfect organism existed already in the 

 ovum, having all its lineaments in miniature, and only growing into 

 visible dimensions through the successive stages of evolution (" Nulla 

 in corpore animale pars ante aliam facta est, et omnes simul creatie 

 existunt" Haller, ' Elementa Physiologice,* viii. 148.) The preformation 



'- of the organism "seemed an inevitable deduction from the opinions once 

 universal. It led to many strange and some absurd conclusions ; among 





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ses vegetaux, ses animaux, et parmi ces derniers un 

 animalcule qui est a ce nouveau monde ce que celui 

 dont je viens de parler, est au monde que nous habi- 

 tons^' Such a conception as this, although perfectly 

 legitimate as a mere fancy, will appear to most people 

 who calmly reflect upon the subject, utterly without 

 claim or title to influence their judgment. An erroneous J-i'ta to ac 

 or inadequate notion concerning the processes of de- 

 velopment which occur in the higher organisms probably 

 induced Bonnet to originate a doctrine which he would 

 not otherwise have countenanced 2. 



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