VIRGIN n.
a male; a parthenogenetic insect. The Virgin, or The Blessed Virgin, the Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord. -- Virgin's bower (Bot.), a name given to several climbing plants of the genus Clematis, as C. Vitalba of Europe, and C. Virginiana of North America.
VISITATION n.
A festival in honor of the visit of the Virgin Mary to Elisabeth, mother of John the Baptist, celebrated on the second of July. The Order of the Visitation of Our Lady (R. C. Ch.), a religious community of nuns, founded at Annecy, in Savoy, in 1610, and in 1808 established in the United States. In America these nuns ar…
ZYMOGEN n.
A mother substance, or antecedent, of an enzyme or chemical ferment; -- applied to such substances as, not being themselves actual ferments, may by internal changes give rise to a ferment. The pancreas contains but little ready-made ferment, though there is present in it a body, zymogen, which gives birth to the fermen…