Note 114 — Chapter X · LAMARCK’S OPINIONS ON GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOLOGY

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.)