Note 107 — Chapter X · LAMARCK’S OPINIONS ON GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOLOGY

Charles Bonnet (1720–1793), a Swiss naturalist, is famous for his work on Aphides and their parthenogenetic generation, on the mode of reproduction in the Polyzoa, and on the respiration of insects. After the age of thirty-four, when his eyesight became impaired, he began his premature speculations, which did not add to his reputation. Judging, however, by an extract from his writings by D’Archiac (Introduction à l’Étude de la Paléontologie stratigraphique, ii., p. 49), he had sound ideas on the theory of descent, claiming that “la diversité et la multitude des conjunctions, peut-être même la diversité des climats et des nourritures, ont donné naissance à de nouvelles espèces ou à des individus intermédiaires” (Œuvres d’Hist. nat. et de Philosophie, in-8vo, p. 230, 1779).