[mod. f. Gr. βίο-ς life + -λογία discoursing (see -LOGY); according to Littré invented by the German naturalist Gottfried Reinhold (Treveranus) in his Biologie, 1802, and adopted in Fr. by Lamarck in his Hydrologie, 1802; it was used in Eng. by Stanfield in 1813, but in a sense directly repr. Gr. βίος (see BIO-), and βιολόγος ‘one who represents to the life.’]
† 1. The study of human life and character. Obs.
1813. J. Stanfield, Biography, Introd. 12. There exists, what might be called biology, as well as biography.
2. The science of physical life; the division of physical science that deals with organized beings or animals and plants, their morphology, physiology, origin and distribution; sometimes, in a narrower sense = Physiology; see Rolleston, Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1870, II. 96.
1819. Lawrence, Lect. Man, ii. (1844), 42. A foreign writer has proposed the more accurate term of biology, or science of life.
1847. Whewell, Philos. Induct. Sc., I. 544. The term Biology has of late become not uncommon, among good writers.
1880. A. Wallace, Isl. Life, I. i. 9. One of the most difficult and interesting questions in geographical biology—the origin of the fauna and flora of New Zealand.
† 3. = ‘ELECTRO-BIOLOGY,’ or ‘animal-magnetism,’ a phase of mesmerism.
1874. Carpenter, Ment. Phys. (1876), 551. ‘Electro biology,’ or ‘Biology’ (as it came to be very commonly designated) … became a fashionable amusement in some circles, at ordinary evening parties.
