The term came into its modern usage with the six-volume treatise "Biologie, oder Philosophie der lebenden Natur" (1802–22) by Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus, who announced::The objects of our research will be the different forms and manifestations of life, the conditions and laws under which these phenomena occur, and the causes through which they have been effected.
Karl Friedrich Burdach je leta 1800 uporabil izraz v strožjem pomenu - za vedo o človeku z morfološkega in psihološkega vidika ("Propädeutik zum Studien der gesammten Heilkunst").