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Definition of Preformation
1. Noun. A theory (popular in the 18th century and now discredited) that an individual develops by simple enlargement of a tiny fully formed organism (a homunculus) that exists in the germ cell.
Definition of Preformation
1. n. An old theory of the preëxistence of germs. Cf. Emboîtement.
Definition of Preformation
1. Noun. Prior formation. ¹
2. Noun. (biology historical) The theory that organisms are fully developed in the form of an egg or seed, and just increase in size (as opposed to (term epigenesis). ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Preformation
1. [n -S]
Lexicographical Neighbors of Preformation
Literary usage of Preformation
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Heredity and Environment in the Development of Men by Edwin Grant Conklin (1922)
"preformation.—When the mind is once lost in the mystery of this ever-recurring
miracle it is not surprising to find that there have been those who have ..."
2. The American Naturalist by American Society of Naturalists, Essex Institute (1897)
"CBD preformation vs. Epigenesis.—That the modern revival of the preformation—epigenesis
... Thus there is here no pure epigenesis, no strict preformation, ..."
3. Heredity and Environment in the Development of Men by Edwin Grant Conklin (1922)
"preformation.—When the mind is once lost in the mystery of this ever-recurring
miracle it is not surprising to find that there have been those who have ..."
4. Eugenio Rignano Upon the Inheritance of Acquired Characters: A Hypothesis of by Eugenio Rignano (1911)
"Facts Which Compel the Rejection of preformation If, limiting ourselves to the
most typical theory of preformation to which all the others can be finally ..."
5. The Cell in Development and Inheritance by Edmund Beecher Wilson (1911)
"J. preformation AND EPIGENESIS. THE UNKNOWN FACTOR IN DEVELOPMENT We have now
arrived at the farthest outposts of cell-research, and here we find ourselves ..."
6. The Cell in Development and Inheritance by Edmund Beecher Wilson (1897)
"J. preformation AND EPIGENESIS. THE UNKNOWN FACTOR IN DEVELOPMENT We have now
arrived at the furthest outposts of cell-research ; and here we find ourselves ..."
7. The Elementary Principles of General Biology by James Francis Abbott (1914)
"preformation. — Suggested perhaps by the structures found within the flower-bud,
or the insect chrysalis, the idea was long current that the germ contains ..."
8. Principles of Character Making by Arthur Holmes (1913)
"The preformation Theory.—During the seventeenth, eighteenth, and even a part of
the nineteenth centuries, the origin of every individual was explained by ..."
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