According to the topos “Ende der Naturgeschichte” (Foucault, Lepenies) a veritable historical understanding of Nature came into being around 1800. The contribution re-considers this thesis and discusses in particular the historical speculations in deistic cosmologies as well as in the context of the idea of a “Great Chain of Beings.” Finally attention is drawn to the implications of the fact that the then new physiological understanding of development (ontogenesis) as an epigenetic process became a naturalistic model of historical development in general just in this period.