278 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



liarities of form, of color, of size, and often even of 

 differences only perceived in the aspect of the indi- 

 vidual compared with other individuals which are 

 related to it the more by their relations, are seized 

 upon by naturalists to establish specific differences ; 

 so that, the slightest varieties being reckoned as 

 species, our catalogues of species grow infinitely 

 great, and the name of the productions of nature of 

 the most interest to us are, so to speak, buried in 

 these enormous lists, become very difficult to find, 

 because now the objects are mostly only determined 

 by characters which our senses can scarcely enable us 

 to perceive. 



" Meanwhile we should remember that nothing of 

 all this exists in nature ; that she knows neither classes, 

 orders, genera, nor species, in spite of all the founda- 

 tion which the portion of the natural series which our 

 collection contains has seemed to afford them ; and 

 that of organic or living bodies there are, in reality, 

 only individuals, and among different races which 

 gradually pass (nuancent) into all degrees of organiza- 

 tion" (p. 14). 



On p. 70 he speaks of the animal chain from monad 

 to man, ascending from the most simple to the most 

 complex. The monad is the most simple, the most 

 like a germ of living bodies, and from its nature passes 

 to the volvoces, proteus, vibrios ; from them nature 

 arrives at the production of " polypes rotifferes " — and 

 then at " Radiaires," worms, Arachnida, Crustacea, 

 and Cirripedes. 



