Abstract
Throughout the Histoire naturelle Buffon was ever aware of epistemological issues involving the reproduction of species, the only beings in nature. By the 1760s he had come to believe that empirical evidence, the source of all human knowledge, revealed that reproduction was a physical process, involving a common living (minute, active, and lively) matter and material forces, all of which he traced to the foundational force of gravitational attraction.
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Notes
Buffon’s thirty-six volumes of the Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière (Paris: l’Imprimerle Royale, 1749–1789) has four large divisions: Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du cabinet du Roi (15 volumes, 1749–1767), Histoire naturelle des oiseaux (9 volumes, 1770–1783), Supplément à l’Histoire naturelle (7 volumes, 1774–1784), and the Histoire naturelle des minéraux (5 volumes, 1783–1788). References will be cited by the title of the division, the division volume number, and the page number. Abbreviations for the different divisions of the Histoire naturelle are as follows:
HN Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du cabinet du Roi;
HNM Histoire naturelle des minéraux; and
HNS Supplément à l’Histoire naturelle.
The Histoire naturelle des oiseaux is not cited.
Unless otherwise indicated, citations are taken from the reproduction of the original Histoire naturelle at http://www.buffon.cnrs.fr, editors Thierry Hoquet and Pietro Corsi. Pietro Corsi is the original editor of this website. The website is password-protected, but a login request can be made at the contact address, buffon@huma-num.fr. The same edition of the HN (volumes 2, 4, 12, 13 & 14 cited herein) is also available online in scanned PDF format from the Numistral Bibliothèque numérique patrimoniale (https://www.numistral.fr/fr). The same edition of the HNS (volumes 1, 4 & 5 cited herein) is also available online in scanned PDF format from Gallica (https://gallica.bnf.fr/accueil/fr/content/accueil-fr), the online digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The same edition of the HNM (volume 1 cited herein) is also available in scanned PDF format from Numelyo - bibliothèque numérique de Lyon (https://numelyo.bm-lyon.fr/). Among the most readily available sources for many of Buffon’s better known writings is Oeuvres philosophiques de Buffon edited by Jean Piveteau (1954). All translations are mine.
On Buffon’s notion of species as successive lineages, see several of Phillip Sloan’s fine works (1972, 1976, 1979, and 1981). On all aspects of Buffon’s views, Jacques Roger’s works are indispensable (1963, 1989, and 1997). Thierry Hoquet’s works (2005, 2010) on what Buffon meant by natural history and thus the nature of species are remarkably insightful. The new edition of the Histoire naturelle, edited by Stephane Schmitt, with the collaboration of Cédric Crémière is wonderful. The biographical introductions to the volumes so far are extremely informed, erudite, cogent and eloquent.
After he had already completed the major part of his theory of reproduction, in his microscopic studies (1748), Buffon found organic molecules in various organic entities and in the seminal fluids of males and females (Buffon believed that there are no eggs in reproduction) of several species. (Buffon HN 2: p. 258)
Phillip R. Sloan contends that this does not alter the fact that Buffon’s investigations with Needham were sophisticated and careful. Sloan writes: “Buffon was a critical and self-reflective scientific methodologist whose sophistication in this area has rarely been appreciated. His unusual scientific methodology involved the dual process of formulation of hypotheses, followed by the testing of these through recurrent observations on concrete phenomena” (Sloan 1992, p. 417).
In a relatively recent work, Marc J. Ratcliff (2009) states that in the Histoire Buffon claimed he used a compound microscope in his microscopic studies. But, Ratcliff writes, the magnifications measurements he included in the paper, “Decouverte de la liqueur séminale dan les femelles vivipares et du réservoir qui la contient,” which he sent to the Académie Royale des Sciences in 1748, are exactly the same as those in a work by Henry Baker (1698–1774) entitled “An Account of Mr. Leeuwenhock’s Microscope,” which was published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1744. And Baker had used a simple microscope. Ratcliff infers from this that “[e]ither [Buffon] first used a simple microscope and changed his mind later, or he used Needham’s double microscope and, in 1748, wanted to impress people with computations” (Ratcliff 2009, p. 162). At any rate, Ratcliff implies Buffon was deceptive and disingenuous.
Phillip R. Sloan argues that Buffon never claimed he used a compound microscope. Buffon stated in the Histoire that he used a “double” microscope, meaning, according to Sloan, that he probably used Needham’s simple microscope—a James Wilson [c. 1665–1730] model, built by John Cuff (1708–1772), which had a second lens used to focus light. The tables of magnification by Baker were used to show the superiority of the microscope Buffon used over those used by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (Sloan 1992, pp. 415–438).
In 1740 Abraham Trembley (1700–1784) discovered the amazing fact that two distinct polyps developed from a single polyp cut into two parts (Ratcliff 2009, pp. 103–123; Ratcliff 2004, pp. 555–575; Roe 1975, pp. 167–190; Vartanian 1950, pp. 259–280). Leeuwenhoek had observed the strange behavior of polyps; however, until the work of Trembley, this observation remained relatively unknown (Leeuwenhoek 1703, pp. 1304–1311).
Buffon’s belief that the simplest beings were organized uniformly throughout their bodies allowed him to explain the remarkable behavior of polyps: every part of these beings was exactly alike; hence, the two separate parts are able to grow and develop.
References
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Acknowledgements
Several people have aided in the completion of this essay. I am especially indebted to Mark A. Eddy for his help in locating first edition reproductions of the Histoire, and in helping to format the manuscript. Julie M. Jones-Eddy also contributed substantially to the editing and formatting of this work. I sincerely thank the reviewers and editors for their excellent comments and valuable suggestions.
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Eddy, J.H. Buffon, Species and the Forces of Reproduction. J Hist Biol 56, 479–493 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-023-09722-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-023-09722-y