BioConcepts

animal economyoeconomia animali (lat.); économie animale (fr.); tierische Ökonomie (ger.)

• The interactions between organisms, their individual biology, form, and functions; (in later use often) spec. physiology. Esp. in animal economy, vegetable economy, etc. Now chiefly hist. (OED 2011)
  category physiology

  1588

  Uti pleuritico prosperæ res fluant naturalis oeconomiæ, vitalis, & animalis

  Duret, L. (1588). Hippocratis magni Coacae Praenotiones: 29, cf. 146, 392, 440.

  1646

  oeconomia corporis animalis

  Hogelande, C. van (1646). Cogitationes, quibus Dei existentia, item animae spiritalitas et possibilis cum corpore unio, demonstrantur: nec non brevis historia oeconomiae corporis animalis proponitur atque mechanice explicatur.

  1659

  œconomia animali

  Charleton, G. (1659). Exercitationes physico-anatomicae de œconomia animali.

  1775

  économie animale [...] la régularité et l’ordre des fonctions

  Bordeu, T. (1775). Recherches sur les maladies chroniques (in: OEuvres complètes, 2 vols., Paris 1818, II, 797-929): 802.