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the butterfly. Even the eggs of the butterfly have been discovered in the 
caterpillar long before its transformation.” 
Malpighi goes on to declare, “ that by the help of the microscope, he 
did actually observe, in the seed of a kidney-bean, the broad leaves, the buds, 
and even the knots, or insertions of the various stems. He perceived the 
stalk distinguished by its woody fibres, and the rows of its vesicles.” 
So Lewenhoeck, after his nice observation of an orange-kernel, which 
he made to germinate in his pocket, concludes, “ Thus we see, how small 
a particle, as the plant appears, no bigger than a small dust of sand, is in¬ 
creased, a plain demonstration that the plant, and all belonging to it, was 
actually in the seed, in the young plant, its body, root, &c.”— Philos. Trans . 
N°. 28 /. 
In answer to this. With regard to vegetables, it is true, that the first 
seed produces a small tree, which it contained in miniature within its lobes. 
At the top of this small tree a bud or germ is formed, which contains the 
shoot or tree that is to spring next season. In the same manner, the small 
tree of the second year produces a bud which includes a tree for the third 
year; and this process uniformly goes on as long as the tree continues to 
vegetate. At the extremity of each branch, buds are likewise formed, which 
contain, in miniature, trees similar to that of the first year. From these, and 
similar facts, it is concluded, that all these germs were contained in the ori¬ 
ginal seed; for the first bud was succeeded by a similar bud, which was not 
unfolded till the second year, and the third bud was not expanded till the 
third year; and, of course, the seed may be said to have contained not only 
the whole buds which would be formed in a hundred years, but all the seeds, 
and all the individuals, which would successively arrive till the final destruc¬ 
tion of the species. 
These facts are known and established; but the reasoning deduced from 
them is fallacious, or, what amounts to the same thing, is perfectly incom¬ 
prehensible. The seed is unquestionably the origin or cause of all future 
individuals, which may be infinite. But the idea that it really contained 
the germs of all the individuals which were to spring from it as a source, is 
not only absurd, but exceeds all the powers of human imagination to conceive. 
Theories of this kind, of which there are too many in almost every depart¬ 
ment of science, hardly merit examination. Every seed, and every animal, 
according to this doctrine, includes in its own body an infinite posterity! 
If we assent to reasonings of this kind, we must lose ourselves in the laby- 
