palavitalism

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The doctrine or opinion that life is due to a form of energy that is different in kind from those to which the changes in inorganic matter are attributed; a name introduced by Haeckel for the theories of vital force propounded from the time of Haller to that of J. Müller, that is, from the middle of the eighteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century: opposed to neovitalism.