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One who denies the existence of spiritual substances or agents, and maintains that spiritual phenomena, so called, are the result of some peculiar organization of matter.

e help of which, an end is attained; something tending to an object desired; intermediate agency or measure; necessary condition or coagent; instrument. Their virtuous conversation was a mean to work the conversion of the heathen to Christ. Hooker. You may be able, by this mean, to review your own scientific acquiremen…

cause or instrument; not direct or immediate; acting or suffering through an intervening agent or condition.

In a mediate manner; by a secondary cause or agent; not directly or primarily; by means; -- opposed to immediately. God worketh all things amongst us mediately. Sir W. Raleigh. The king grants a manor to A, and A grants a portion of it to B. In this case. B holds his lands immediately of A, but mediately of the king. B…

Hence, specifically, agency between parties at variance, with a view to reconcile them; entreaty for another; intercession. Bacon.

To cause to act through an agent or to hold a subordinate position; to annex; -- specifically applied to the annexation during the former German empire of a smaller German state to a larger, while allowing it a nominal sovereignty, and its prince his rank. The misfortune of being a mediatized prince. Beaconsfield.…

Any substance administered in the treatment of disease; a remedial agent; a remedy; physic. By medicine, life may be prolonged. Shak.

expedition of the Argonauts was partly mercantile, partly military. Arbuthnot. Mercantile agency, an agency for procuring information of the standing and credit of merchants in different parts of the country, for the use of dealers who sell to them. -- Mercantile marine, the persons and vessels employed in commerce, t…

(Chem.), a volatile liquid having the odor of peppermint, obtained by certain dehydrating agents from acetone; -- formerly called also dumasin.

The change of material of one kind into another through the agency of the living organism; metabolism. Vegetable metamorphosis (Bot.), the doctrine that flowers are homologous with leaf buds, and that the floral organs are transformed leaves.

Any agent detrimental to, or destructive of, the life of microbes or bacterial organisms.

c-phosphate. It is a powerful flux, and is used as a substitute for borax as a blowpipe reagent in testing for the metallic oxides. Originally obtained by the alchemists from human urine, and called sal microcosmicum.

An agent between two parties; a broker; a go-between; any dealer between the producer and the consumer; in Ireland, one who takes land of the proprietors in large tracts, and then rents it out in small portions to the peasantry.

An obsequious or servile dependent or agent of another; a fawning favorite. Sir J. Davies. Go, rate thy minions, proud, insulting boy! Shak.

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.

Hence: Agency; instrumentality. The ordinary ministry of second causes. Atterbury. The wicked ministry of arms. Dryden.

Of the nature of a miracle; performed by supernatural power; effected by the direct agency of almighty power, and not by natural causes.

Harm; damage; esp., disarrangement of order; trouble or vexation caused by human agency or by some living being, intentionally or not; often, calamity, mishap; trivial evil caused by thoughtlessness, or in sport. Chaucer. Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs. Ps. lii. 2. The practice whereof shall, I hope, secure me from many…

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.