BUFFON, GEORGES-LOUIS LECLERC, COMTE DE (b. Montbard, France, 7 September 1707; d. Paris, France, 16 April 1788); natural history.

    separate species and twenty-five genera. But Buffon was not a transformist, because he believed that these thirty-eight primitive types arose spontaneously and simultaneously from an assembly of organic molecules.

As a naturalist and as a paleontologist Buffon was forced to uphold the variability of animal form; as a biologist he had to admit the permanence of hereditary types. He was never able to resolve this difficulty, although he stated the problem quite clearly.

“Love of the study of nature,” Buffon wrote, “implies, in the human mind, two attributes which appear to be opposed, the broad outlook of an ardent spirit that grasps everything in one glance and the minute attention of a hard-working instinct that concentrates on only one point” (ibid., Sur la manière . . ., p. 7A). Buffon liked to deal with great biological and zoological problems, but his work is above all a detailed description of quadrupeds, birds, and minerals. To him, the “true method” is “the complete description and exact history of each thing in particular” (ibid., p. 14B). This “history” goes beyond simple morphological description:

The history of one animal should be . . . that of the entire species of that particular animal; it ought to include their procreation, gestation period, the time of birth, number of offspring, the care given by the mother and father, their education, their instincts, their habitats, their diet, the manner in which they procure food, their habits, their wiles, their hunting methods [ibid., 16A-B].

Physiological characteristics allow species separated by habitat or mores to be grouped together biologically; conversely, the habitats or habits of each animal permit distinctions between species or varieties. The description should also include a study of animal psychology, in particular that of social species (as monkeys and beavers). Buffon's method became more and more comparative, and in some works, he drew up genealogical tables of the varieties of each species. Buffon tried always to observe personally the animals he discussed. Nevertheless, pure description became boring to him, and he entrusted it to his associates.

In the Histoire naturelle de l'homme, published in 1749 (Histoire naturelle, II, III), and in many of his other works as well, Buffon studied the human species by the same methods that he applied to animal species, including the psychological, moral, and intellectual life of man. At the same time that he proclaimed the absolute superiority that the ability to reason gives man over animals, he demonstrated how the physiological organization and development of the sensory organs make reasoning possible. Throughout his work Buffon specifies that reason developed only through language, that language grew out of life in society, and that social life was necessitated by man's slow physiological growth (since man is dependent on his mother long after birth). For the same reason, the elephant is the most intelligent of animals, while social life makes beavers capable of astonishing work.

It was, therefore, as a physiologist and as a naturalist that Buffon studied man and his reason; and it was as a biologist that he affirmed the unity of the human species. Aside from a few safe formulas, theology never comes into the picture. According to the Époques de la nature—and, in particular according to its manuscript—it is clear that the human species has had the same history as the animals. Buffon even explains that the first men, born on an earth that was still hot, were black, capable of withstanding tropical temperatures. Through the use of the resources of his intelligence and because of the invention of fire, clothes, and tools, man was able to adapt himself to all climates, as animals could not. Man is therefore the master of nature; and he can become so to an even greater degree if he begins to understand “that science is his true glory, and peace his true happiness” (Époques de la nature, p. 220).

Buffon's work is of exceptional importance because of its diversity, richness, originality, and influence. Buffon was among the first to create an autonomous science, free of any theological influence. He emphasized the importance of natural history and the great length of geological time. He envisioned the nature of science and understood the roles of paleontology, zoological geography, and animal psychology. He realized both the necessity of transformism and its difficulties. Although his cosmogony was inadequate and his theory of animal reproduction was weak, and although he did not understand the problem of classification, he did establish the intellectual framework within which most naturalists up to Darwin worked.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. ORIGINAL WORKS.

See Oeuvres complètes de Buffon, J. L. Lanessan, ed., followed by Buffon's correspondence, 14 vols. (Paris, 1884-1885), still considered to be the best edition; Oeuvres philosophiques de Buffon, J. Piveteau, ed. (Paris, 1954), which contains a bibliography by Mme. E. Genet-Varcin and J. Roger that lists most works on Buffon published before 1954; and Les Époques de la nature, critical ed. by J. Roger (Paris, 1962), with an introduction, reproduction of the MS, notes, scientific vocabulary, and bibliography.

II. SECONDARY LITERATURE.

Works on Buffon, both with more recent bibliographies, are L. Hanks, Buffon avant