[Zoonites and organic units: its origins from a specific lecture of Alfred Moquin-Tandon (1804-1863) and Antoine Duges (1797-1838)].
To analyse the origins of the appearance of the zoonite concept as a unit of segmentary organisation in zoology requires positioning oneself in the context of the first half of the nineteenth century, more specifically in the years 1826-1839. If the origins of the problem go back to Goethe, on the one hand, and to botanists such as de Candolle on the other, the thesis of Moquin-Tandon on the splitting of plants (1826) is an essential step. The hypotheses of multiplication and diversification of organs arranged according to a symmetry, also presides over his research on the Hirudinées (1827). The zoonite is an elementary organic unit which can multiple itself and is structured symmetrically. But what characterises it is that its composition confers on it a certain autonomy. In 1832, Dugès regarded the connection between zoonite and total organism from the angle of organic conformity. He deduced from his observations the laws of multiplicity of organisms, of disposition, of modification and of coalescence. This last law would become vital to Dugès in 1838 for explaining the evolution of the composed being as well as embryonic development. But zoonitism in the 1830s did not constitute a scientific theory, even if it would ultimately serve as a reference, in particular for the animal physiology of Edwards.
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Faculté de Philosophie, Université catholique de Lyon 25, rue du plat, 69288 LYON, France.
D005075:Biological Evolution; D019521:Body Patterning; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D015046:Zoology / Q000266:history*