Note 187 — Chapter XVII · THE “PHILOSOPHIE ZOOLOGIQUE” (continued 2)
Reading edition
“As all animals do not have the power of performing voluntary acts, so in like manner instinct is not common to all animals: for those lacking the nervous system also want the organic sense, and can perform no instinctive acts.
“These imperfect animals are entirely passive, they do nothing of themselves, they have no wants, and nature as regards them treats them as she does plants. But as they are irritable in their parts, the means which nature employs to maintain their existence enables them to execute movements which we call actions.”
It thus appears that Lamarck practically regards the lowest animals as automata, but we must remember that the line he draws between animals with and without a nervous system is an artificial one, as some of the forms which he supposed to be destitute of a nervous system are now known to possess one.