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rfect to a more perfect or more highly organized state; to advance from a simpler form of existence to one more complex either in structure or function; as, a blossom develops from a bud; the seed develops into a plant; the embryo develops into a well-formed animal; the mind develops year by year. Nor poets enough to u…

m a lower to a higher state of organization, and that all the higher forms of life now in existence were thus developed by uniform laws from lower forms, and are not the result of special creative acts. See the Note under Darwinian.

ephalopods. They are remarkable for the extreme simplicity of their structure. The embryo exists in two forms.

r deluge of water; -- said of coarse and imperfectly stratified deposits along ancient or existing water courses. Similar unstratified deposits were formed by the agency of ice. The time of deposition has been called the Diluvian epoch.

among the coal measures. -- Dirt eating. (a) The use of certain kinds of clay for food, existing among some tribes of Indians; geophagism. Humboldt. (b) (Med.) Same as Chthonophagia. -- Dirt pie, clay or mud molded by children in imitation of pastry. Otway (1684). -- To eat dirt, to submit in a meanly humble manner…

To cease to be or exist; as, the epidemic has disappeared.

al process the reverse of assimilation; downward metabolism. The breaking down of already existing chemical compounds into simpler ones, sometimes called disassimilation. Martin.

To obtain for the first time sight or knowledge of, as of a thing existing already, but not perceived or known; to find; to ascertain; to espy; to detect. Some to discover islands far away. Shak.

To divest of the or corporeal existence. Devils embodied and disembodied. Sir W. Scott.

The doctrine of those who maintain the existence of two gods or of two original principles (as in Manicheism), one good and one evil; dualism.

spear or in the attitude of a spear bearer. Several important sculptures of this subject existed in antiquity, copies of which remain to us.

perative in requiring an acquittal, is not the want of perfect certainty (which can never exist in any question of fact) but a defect of proof preventing a reasonable assurance of quilt. Wharton.

in port on the breaking out of war, or those coming into port in ignorance of hostilities existing, or from such ships as are taken by noncommissioned captors; also, the proceeds of wrecks, and derelict property at sea. The droits of admiralty are now paid into the Exchequer for the public benefit.

One of an order of priests which in ancient times existed among certain branches of the Celtic race, especially among the Gauls and Britons.

ate or quality of lasting; continuance in time; the portion of time during which anything exists. It was proposed that the duration of Parliament should be limited. Macaulay. Soon shall have passed our own human duration. D. Webster.

In the time of; as long as the action or existence of; as, during life; during the space of a year.

st and most imperative duty. Hallam. Duty is a graver term than obligation. A duty hardly exists to do trivial things; but there may be an obligation to do them. C. J. Smith.

nism. To the doctrine of dysteleology, or the denial of final causes, a proof of the real existence of such a thing as instinct must necessarily be fatal. Word (Dynamic Sociology).

Pertaining to the earth; belonging to this world, or to man's existence on the earth; not heavenly or spiritual; carnal; worldly; as, earthly joys; earthly flowers; earthly praise. This earthly load Of death, called life. Milton. Whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. Phil. iii. 19.…

A copy from an original; a type of something that has previously existed. Some regarded him [Klopstock] as an ectype of the ancient prophets. Eng. Cyc. .