[114] Buffon did not accept Bonnet's theory of preëxistent germs, but he assumed the existence of "_germes accumulés_" which reproduced parts or organs, and for the production of organisms he imagined "_molécules organiques_." Réaumur had previously (1712) conjectured that there were "_germes cachés et accumulés_" to account for the regeneration of the limbs of the crayfish. The ideas of Bonnet on germs are stated in his _Mémoires sur les Salamandres_ (1777-78-80) and in his _Considérations sur les corps organisés_ (1762.) [115] _Mémoires de Physique_, etc., pp. 318, 319, 324-359. Yet the idea of a sort of continuity between the inorganic and the organic world is expressed by Verworn. [116] _General Physiology_ (English trans., 1899, p. 17). In France vitalism was founded by Bordeu (1722-1766), developed further by Barthez (1734-1806) and Chaussier (1746-1828), and formulated most distinctly by Louis Dumas (1765-1813). Later vitalists gave it a thoroughly mystical aspect, distinguishing several varieties, such as the _nisus formativus_ or formative effort, to explain the forms of organisms, accounting for the fact that from the egg of a bird, a bird and no other species always develops (_l. c._, p. 18). [117] _Recherches sur l'organisation des corps vivans_ (1802), p. 70. The same view was expressed in _Mémoires de physique_ (1797), pp. 254-257, 386. [118] Here might be quoted for comparison other famous definitions of life: "Life is the sum of the functions by which death is resisted."--Bichat. "Life is the result of organization."--(?) "Life is the principle of individuation."--Coleridge ex. Schelling. "Life is the twofold internal movement of composition and decomposition, at once general and continuous."--De Blainville, who wisely added that there are "two fundamental and correlative conditions inseparable from the living being--an organism and a medium." "Life is the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations."--Herbert Spencer. CHAPTER XI LAMARCK AS A BOTANIST During the century preceding the time of Lamarck, botany had not flourished in France with the vigor shown in other countries. Lamarck himself frankly stated in his address to the Committee of Public Instruction of the National Convention that the study of plants had been for a century neglected by Frenchmen, and that the great progress which it had made during this time was almost entirely due to foreigners. "I am free to say that since the distinguished Tournefort the French have remained to some extent inactive in this direction; they have produced almost nothing, unless we except some fragmentary mediocre or unimportant works. On the other hand, Linné in Sweden, Dilwillen in England, Haller in Switzerland, Jacquin in Austria, etc., have immortalized themselves by their own works, vastly extending the limit of our knowledge in this interesting part of natural history."