CHAPTER X 



LAMARCK'S OPINIONS ON GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY 

 AND BIOLOGY 



Lamarck died before the rise of the sciences of 

 morphology, embryology, and cytology. As to palae- 

 ontology, which he aided in founding, he had but 

 the slightest idea of the geological succession of life- 

 forms, and not an inkling of the biogenetic law or 

 recapitulation theory. Little did he know or foresee 

 that the main and strongest support of his own the- 

 ory was to be this same science of the extinct forms 

 of life. Yet it is a matter of interest to know what 

 were his views or opinions on the nature of life ; 

 whether he made any suggestions bearing on the doc- 

 trine of the unity of nature ; whether he was a vital- 

 ist or not ; and whether he was a follower of Haller 

 and of Bonnet,* as was Cuvier, or pronounced in 

 favor of epigenesis. 



* Charles Bonnet (1720-1793), a Swiss naturalist, is famous for his 

 work on Aphides and their parthenogenetic generation, on the mode 

 of reproduction in the Polyzoa, and on the respiration of insects. 

 After the age of thirty-four, when his eyesight became impaired, he 

 began his premature speculations, which did not add to his reputation. 

 Judging, however, by an extract from his writings by D'Archiac {In- 

 troduction a I' Etude de la Pale'ontologie stratigrapliiqtie, ii., p. 49), he 

 had sound ideas on the theory of descent, claiming that " la diversite et 

 la multitude des conjunctions, peut-etre m^me la diversite des climats 

 et des nourritures, ont donne naissance A de nouvelles esp^ces ou a 

 des individus intermediaires " {Qiuvres d'Hist. nat. et de Philosophic, 

 in-8vo, p. 230, 1779). 



