Note 36 — Chapter V · REGENERATION AND LIABILITY TO INJURY

Delage and Giard give Lessona (’69) the credit for first stating that the phenomenon of regeneration is an adaptation to liability to injury; but Réaumur first suggested this idea in 1742, and Bonnet in 1745. Delage’s interpretation, viz. that Lessona ascribed this to a prévoyance de la nature, has been denied by Lessona’s biographer, Camerano (La Vita di M. Lessona, Acad. R. d. Torino, 2, XLV, 1896), and by Giard (Sur L’autotomie Parasitaire, etc., Compt. Rendus de Séances de la Société de Biologie, May, 1897).