32 
MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 
sequently it may be said, that they are not conform- 
able to nature, and are even opposed to it, because 
they unceasingly reproduce what nature continually 
tends to destroy. Vegetables form direct combina- 
tions of the elements ; animals produce more com - 
plicated compounds by combining those formed by 
vegetables; but there is in every living body a 
power which tends to destroy it ; all therefore die, 
each in his appointed season, and all mineral sub- 
stances, and all organic bodies whatsoever, are 
nothing but the remains of bodies which once had 
life, and from which the more volatile principles 
have been successfully disengaged. The products 
of the most complex animals are calcareous sub- 
stances, those of vegetables are argils or earths. 
Both of these pass into a siliceous state, by freeing 
themselves more and more from their less fixed 
principles, and at last are reduced to rock-crystal, 
which is earth in its greatest purity. Salts, pyrites, 
metals, differ from other minerals, only because 
certain circumstances have had the effect of accu- 
mulating in them, in different proportions, a greater 
quantity of carbonic or acidific fire.” 
Lamarck’s opinion regarding the origin of living 
beings, and the manner in which they acquired the 
various organs and forms which they now possess, 
are well known. They were first given to the 
public in 1802, in a work entitled “ Researches on 
the Organization of living Bodies, on the Cause of 
its Developements, and the Progress of its Composi- 
tion, and on that Principle, which, by continually 
