442 London, Edinburgh, fy Dublin Philosophical Magazine. 



Physiologicse," a work equally remarkable for the orginality, precision, 

 and clearness of its statements, which was published in 1787, he 

 made known his views on the " Bildungs Trieb," or " Nisus formati- 

 vus," which he had before announced in the Gottingen Transactions 

 for 1785, and which he made the subject of a special work in 1789.* 

 His " Specimens of the Physiology of Warm and Cold-blooded ani- 

 mals," appeared in 1789. In 1794 he published in our Transactions, 

 " Observations on some Egyptian Mummies opened in London 

 in 1792," with special reference to the three distinct varieties of na- 

 tional physiognomy which appear amongst them. His " Handbuch 

 der vergleichenden Anatomie" appeared in 1805, and shewed how fully 

 he already appreciated the important views of Cuvier, which elevated 

 Comparative Anatomy from a merely descriptive science to one which 

 was capable of the most instructive generalizations, and affording the 

 means of distmguishing types and laws of formation, as well for 

 different organs as for different classes of animals. 



The term nisus formativus was employed by Blumenbach to de- 

 note that vital power which is innate in all living organized bodies, 

 and in active operation during the whole period of their vital exis- 

 tence, by which they are controlled and modified with reference to a 

 specified end ; it is that power by which the organizable matter of 

 every individual being assumes at its conception, its allotted form ; 

 which form is also capable of successive modifications by nutrition, 

 according to the purpose for which it is destined by the Author of 

 Nature, as well as of the reparation (within prescribed limits) of the 

 injuries which it may have received. The announcement of this 

 principle was received with extraordinary favour by physiologists, 

 though it differed in little more than in name from the vis essentialis 

 of the celebrated Wolff. It will be found to have formed the basis 

 of- some of his important speculations. 



Blumenbach's well-known collection of the crania of the different 

 races of mankind was made with a view to their more accurate clas- 

 sification, and gave rise to some of his more celebrated publications.f 

 According to his ultimate views, he would make the Caucasian race 

 the primary stem, from which all the others have degenerated to the 



* Ubber den Bildungs Trieb. 



t Collectio Decad. vi. craniorum diversanim gentium tabulis 60 aeneis illustrata: 1790 — 1820. 

 De generis humani varietate nativa : 1 795. 



