BioConcepts

economy of natureoeconomia naturae (lat.); Ökonomie der Natur (ger.)

• Of the natural world as a whole, esp. in economy of nature; spec. as relating to the interdependence of living things. Now hist. (OED 2011)
  
  category ecology

  1644

  Bodies do neuerthelesse mooue constantly and perpetually one way, the dense ones descending, and the rare ones ascending: not by any intrinsecall quality that worketh vpon them; but by the oeconomy of nature, that hath sett on foote due and plaine causes to produce known effects.

  Digby, K. (1644). Two treatises: In the one of which, the nature of bodies; in the other, the nature of mans soule; is looked into: in way of discovery, of the immortality of reasonable soules: 83 (acc. to OED 2011).
  

  1658

  One may remark within the course, and oeconomy of nature, sundry sorts of attractions: as that of succion, or sucching, whereby I have seen a ball of lead at the bottom of a long steel exactly wrought, follow the air, which one sucked out of the mouth of a Canon, with that impetuosity, and strength, that it broke his teeth. The attraction of water or wine that is done by the instrument Scyphon is like to this, for by means of that, one liquor is

  Digby, K. (1658). A late discourse made in a solemne assembly […] touching the cure of wounds by the powder of sympathy (translated from French by R. White): 53.

  1667

  triplici naturæ oeconomia

  Kircher, A. (1667). Magneticum naturæ regnum: […] qua occultæ prodigiosarum quarundam motionum vires & proprietates, quæ in triplici naturæ oeconomia nonnullis in corporibus noviter detectis observantur.

  1687

  naturae oeconomia

  Cosmius, H. (1687). Magna naturae oeconomia.

  1749

  Per Oeconomiam Naturæ intelligimus Summi conditoris circa Res Naturales sapientissimam dispositionem, secundum fines & reciprocos usus producendos. [Unter der Oeconomie der Natur verstehet man des höchsten Schöpfers weise Anordnung der natürlichen Dinge, vermöge der sie zur Hervorbringung der gemeinschaftlichen Zwecke und zur Leistung eines wechselweisen Nutzens geschickt sind.]

  Linnaeus, C. (1749). Oeconomia naturae: 1 [Germ. transl.: Die Oeconomie der Natur, in: Des Ritters Carl von Linné Auserlesene Abhandlungen aus der Naturgeschichte, Physik und Arzneywissenschaft, ed. E.J.T. Hoepfner, Leipzig 1777, vol. 2, 1-56: 1].

  1856-58

  places in the economy of nature

  Darwin, C. (1856-58). [Manuscript 10.2] (Chap. 6 »On Natural Selection«), fol. 11; 34; cf. Stauffer, R.C. (1960). Ecology in the long manuscript version of Darwin’s Origin of Species and Linnaeus’ Oeconomy of Nature. Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 104, 235-241: 237.

  1870

  die Oecologie der Organismen, die Wissenschaft von den gesammten Beziehungen des Organismus zur umgebenden Außenwelt, zu den organischen und anorganischen Existenzbedingungen; die sogenannte „Oekonomie der Natur“, die Wechselbeziehungen aller Organismen, welche an einem und demselben Orte mit einander leben, ihre Anpassung an die Umgebung, ihre Umbildung durch den Kampf um’s Dasein, insbesondere die Verhältnisse des Parasitismus u.s.w.

  Haeckel, E. (1868). Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte: 539.