Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See extract.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun See vital force.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A supposed "growth force" in vitalism.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek

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Examples

  • He gave the finest expression that science has yet known -- if it has known it -- of the kernel-idea of what is called "bathmism," the idea of an

    Evolution in Modern Thought Gustav Schwalbe 1880

  • Mr. Cope lays great stress on the existence of a special developmental force termed "bathmism" or growth-force, which acts by means of retardation and acceleration "without any reference to fitness at all;" that "instead of being controlled by fitness it is the controller of fitness."

    Darwinism (1889) Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

  • There are a bunch of proposed theories that have been tossed bathmism, orthogenesis, aristogenesis, neo-Lamarckism, etc.

    Action: Push Ohio State Board of Education to Revisit Standards - The Panda's Thumb 2005

  • Cope, Dr. E.D., on non-adaptive characters, 131 on fundamental laws of growth, 420 on bathmism or growth-force, 421 on use producing structural change, 422 on law of centrifugal growth, 422 on origin of the feet of ungulates, 423 on action of animal intelligence, 425

    Darwinism (1889) Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

Comments

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  • JM loves a nice long bathmism.

    September 12, 2010