a. [f. prec. + -IC.]
1. Of or pertaining to, involving or denoting, vitalism or a hypothetical vital principle.
1865. Englishm. Mag., Feb., 158. Though Homer assures us that … Polybius and Machaon excelled in the healing art, nothing … remains to throw any light upon their vitalistic theories.
1871. Tylor, Prim. Cult., I. 395. The Karen doctrine of the lá is indeed a perfect and well-marked vitalistic system.
1889. Duncan, Clin. Lect. Dis. Women (ed. 4), xxviii. 224. The great question implied in vitalistic doctrine.
2. Pertaining to or denoting the germ-theory (see GERM sb. 6), esp. in its relation to fermentation.
1891. Nature, 26 March, 482/1. It was no easy thing for him to justify the study of fermentation on the lines suggested by what was called the vitalistic or germ-theory.
