The unity of type in Buffon’s natural history

Abstract

In the Natural History of Buffon, not only the general resemblance of the animals, but also their most important differences, are explained by the general principles and the particular conditions that ruled their constitution. In some cases, it is true, unity of descent and degeneration could explain those structurally secondary resemblances and differences that exist among the members of a family derived from the same original stock. Nevertheless, in Buffon´s system, this bounded transformism is just a simple secondary hypothesis used to complete an understanding of the history of the life that, although purely materialistic, works without the tree of life conceived by Darwin and without the march of nature imagined by Lamarck.