Johann Friedrich Blumenbach · 1789
An Essay on Generation
- Original title
- Über den Bildungstrieb
- Language
- German
- Form
- Treatise
- Text
- Full text
- English
- Period translation · A. Crichton, 1792
- Source text
- archive.org
- Selected
- Ben Breen, 2026-09-29; suggested by Claude research agents, 29 Sep 2026
- Status
- Arguments unverified; quotations chosen by machine, unchecked
Q09LIFE
Can the development of an organism from an egg be explained as the operation of a machine?No. development needs a formative drive. Blumenbach denies pre-existing organized germs and defines formative nisus as a distinctive force of generation, growth, nutrition and reproduction.
Summary disputed by reviewer: Description reconciled with the current quotation by Codex, 28 Oct 2026; historical interpretation and existing draft category remain unvalidated.
That there is no such thing in nature, as pre-existing organized germs: but that the unorganized matter of generation, after being duly prepared, and having arrived at its place of destination takes on a particular action, or nisus, which nisus continues to act through the whole life of the animal, and that by it the first form of the animal, or plant is not only determined, but afterwards preserved, and when deranged, is again restored. A nisus, which seems therefore to depend on the powers of life, but which is as distinct from the other qualities of living bodies, (sensibility, irritability, and contractility) as from the common properties of dead matter: that it is the chief principle of generation, growth, nutrition, and reproduction, and that to distinguish it from all others, it may be denominated the Formative Nisus (Bildungstrieb, or Nisus formativus).
OCR corrected
German 1789 Göttingen edition and 1792 English translation both listed on Internet Archive (search results; Wellcome Collection record).