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A servant; a subordinate; an officer or assistant of inferior rank; hence, an agent, an instrument. Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua. Ex. xxiv. 13. I chose Camillo for the minister, to poison My friend Polixenes. Shak.

The office, duties, or functions of a minister, servant, or agent; ecclesiastical, executive, or ambassadorial function or profession.

That with which a messenger or agent is charged; an errand; business or duty on which one is sent; a commission. How to begin, how to accomplish best His end of being on earth, and mission high. Milton.

That doctrine which refers all phenomena to a single ultimate constituent or agent; -- the opposite of dualism.

rong action or of being governed by a sense of right; subject to the law of duty. A moral agent is a being capable of those actions that have a moral quality, and which can properly be denominated good or evil in a moral sense. J. Edwards.

of an action is founded in the freedom of that principle, by virtue of which it is in the agent's power, having all things ready and requisite to the performance of an action, either to perform or not perform it. South.

ve argument; motive power. "Motive faculty." Bp. Wilkins. Motive power (Mach.), a natural agent, as water, steam, wind, electricity, etc., used to impart motion to machinery; a motor; a mover.

-- Mud bath, an immersion of the body, or some part of it, in mud charged with medicinal agents, as a remedy for disease. -- Mud boat, a large flatboat used in deredging. -- Mud cat. See Catfish. -- Mud crab (Zoöl.), any one of several American marine crabs of the genus Panopeus. -- Mud dab (Zoöl.), the winter flo…

A mydriatic medicine or agent, as belladonna.

A myotic agent.

The belief or doctrine that attributes everything to nature as a sanative agent.

or compulsion; involuntary; -- opposed to free; as, whether man is a necessary or a free agent is a question much discussed.

nsaction of business between nations; the mutual intercourse of governments by diplomatic agents, in making treaties, composing difference, etc.; as, the negotiations at Ghent. An important negotiation with foreign powers. Macaulay.

One who negotiates; a person who treats with others, either as principal or agent, in respect to purchase and sale, or public compacts.

The movement caused in the sensory organs by external agents and transmitted to the muscles by the nerves. Dunglison.

Any agent capable of causing nervimotion. Dunglison.

A nervine agent.

cylinder of medullated nerve fibers. Like keratin it resists the action of most chemical agents, and by decomposition with sulphuric acid yields leucin and tyrosin.

Any toxic agent whose action is mainly directed to the great nerve centers.

ate of silver, a white crystalline salt (AgNO3), used in photography and as a cauterizing agent; -- called also lunar caustic.