[The history of the concept of vital force]

This article deals with the term "Lebenskraft - vital force' from the terminological point of view (life vs. force), as well as from the historical one-(1774-1848), also considering the place this term occupies in colloquial speech. This term, however, first introduced into medicine by Kasimir Medicus in 1774, cannot be defined in a philosophical sense. Historically though, it can be proved that four different starting positions have caused the different ways of interpreting this "vital force'. Alongside the physical interpretations, i.e. the impossibility of a perpetuum mobile, there were some reflections on the chemical mode of action (chemical dynamism, J.Chr. Reil). Another aspect developed from the irritability concept (G.R. Treviranus); furthermore a special interpretation resulted from the microcosmos-macrocosmos-analogy (Fr.L. Augustin). Thus these different positions had influenced the investigations carried out in the fields of biochemistry, neuro-physiology and comparative anatomy. Since the investigations of Emil Du Bois-Reymond and his articles on "Lebenskraft' the term and the hypothesis of vital force was no longer of scientific importance. The term lived on in colloquial speech and thus became a characteristic of the difference between a scientific and non scientific approach to life.