#preformism

• Animalculism — A preformist biological doctrine or theory of the 17th and 18th centuries, which asserted that the new organism is fully formed, albeit at a microscopic scale (homunculus), inside the spermatozoon (the spermatic animalcule). According to this structural vision, the mother's role was reduced exclusively to providing a nourishing environment for the fetus's subsequent development, a movement directly opposed to ovism in early scientific debates.
• Animalculist — A scientist, physician, or follower of animalculism, a 17th and 18th-century biological theory asserting that the future organism is completely preformed inside the spermatozoon. As an adjective, it describes an argument, a structural study, or a scientific view belonging to this preformist movement, according to which the maternal ovum served exclusively as a nurturing environment for the homunculus's development.
• Animalculism — An early doctrinal current or biological hypothesis, specific to the 17th and 18th centuries, stating that the future organism is fully preformed inside the male sex cell (spermatozoon), viewed as a microscopic 'animalcule' that only needs the uterine environment to grow. This radical theoretical orientation was a branch of preformism and was locked in a long conceptual dispute with ovism and epigenesis.
• Animalculist — A person who supported or showed adherence to animaliculism; a preformist scientist or philosopher of the 17th-and-18th centuries who believed that the future organism is completely configured within the male sex cell. As an adjective, it describes a work, hypothesis, or theoretical orientation specific to this current in the history of embryology, in direct opposition to ovism.