266 



The term nisus formativus was employed by Blumenbach to denote 

 that vital power y^liiGh. is innate in all living organized bodies, and in 

 active operation during the whole period of their vital existence, 

 by which they are controlled and modified with reference to a speci- 

 fied 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, accord- 

 ing 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 

 diflfered in little more than in name from the vis esse?itialis 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 

 classification, and gave rise to some of his more celebrated pub- 

 lications*. According to his ultimate views, he would make the 

 Caucasian race the primary stem, from which all the others have 

 degenerated to the Mongol at one extremity, and the ^Ethiopic at 

 the other, interposing the American variety between the Caucasian 

 and the Mongol, and the Malay between the Caucasian and the 

 iEthiopic : it is difficult, however, to arrive at very correct general 

 conclusions on this very interesting subject, without reference to 

 those which are founded on the analogies of language, as has been 

 done by Cuvier and Prichard. 



It is quite impossible, within the short compass to which this 

 notice is necessarily confined, to convey more than a very general 

 impression of the vast variety of the labours of this distinguished 

 philosopher. We find him applying his knowledge of natural his- 

 tory in illustration of the arts and poetry of antiquity f; he was 

 also one of the first naturalists who appreciated the importance 

 of a knowledge of fossils in determining the relative ages of the 

 strata of the earth J. He had cultivated archaeology and literary 

 history § from his earliest years with more than common interest and 

 zeal. There were, in fact, few departments of knowledge and litera- 

 ture, however remotely connected with the natural sciences, which 

 he has not illustrated by his writings : it was when thus travelling 



* Collectio Decad. vi. craniorum diversarum gentium tabulis 60 seneis 

 illustrata: 1790 — 1820. De generis humani varietate nativa : 1795. 



t Specimen historise naturalis, antiques artis operibus illustratse eaque 

 vicissim illustrantis : 1803. Com. Acad. Gott., torn. xvi. 



Specimen historise naturalis ex auctoribus classicis, prsesertim poetis, 

 illustratse eosque vicissim illustrantis: 1815. Com. recent. Acad. Gott., 

 tom. cxi. 



J Beitrage zur Naturgeschichte der Vorwelt : 1790. Specimen archseo- 

 logice telluris terrarumque imprimis Hannoveranarum : 1801. Also Com- 

 ment. Acad. Gott., tom. xv. pp. 132 — 156. Com. recent. Acad. Gott., tom. 

 cxi. pp. 3 — 24. 



§ His " Introductio in Historiam Medicinse Literariam," published in 

 1786, is a most instructive specimen of scientific bibliography. 



