1 64 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



he contrasts the growth of organic bodies with that 

 of minerals. 



" The body of this living being not having been 

 formed hy juxtaposition, as most mineral substances, 

 that is to say, by the external and successive apposi- 

 tion of particles aggregated en masse by attraction, 

 but essentially formed by generation, in its principle, 

 it has then grown by intussusception — namely, by the 

 introduction, the transportation, and the internal ap- 

 position of molecules borne along and deposited be- 

 tween its parts ; whence have resulted the successive 

 developments of parts which compose the body of 

 this living individual, and from which afterwards also 

 result the repairs which preserve it during a limited 

 time." 



Here, as elsewhere in his various works, Lamarck 

 brings out the fact, for the first time stated, that 

 all material things are either non-living or mineral, 

 inorganic ; or living, organic. A favorite phrase with 

 him is living bodies, or, as we should say, organisms. 

 He also is the first one to show that minerals increase 

 by juxtaposition, while organisms grow by intussus- 

 ception. 



No one would look in his writings for an idea or 

 suggestion of the principle of differentiation of parts 

 or organs as we now understand it, or for the idea of 

 the physiological division of labor ; these were re- 

 served for the later periods of embryology and 

 morphology. 



Origin of the First Vital Function. — We will now 

 return to the germ. After it had begun spontaneous 

 existence, Lamarck proceeds to say : 



