La philosophie zoologique avant Darwin

A chronological survey traces the development of zoological thought from ancient myth and philosophy through classical and medieval naturalists to modern nineteenth-century debates, examining comparative anatomy, classification, paleontology, and embryology. It outlines Aristotle's early notions of analogy and continuity, Renaissance and Linnaean descriptive work, Buffon's and Lamarck's arguments for species change, and the contrasting doctrines of Cuvier and Geoffroy Saint‑Hilaire on fixity versus transformism. The text treats theories of organic types, the study of lower animals and reproductive modes, the rise of cell theory, and the methodological and philosophical disputes shaping concepts of species, adaptation, and unity of plan.