Search the Dictionary

; caudal; posterior; especially, behind, or on the caudal or posterior (that is, ulnar or fibular) side of, the axis of a vertebrate limb.

om Percival Pott, an English surgeon. Pott's fracture, a fracture of the lower end of the fibula, with displacement of the tibia. Dunglison.

Causing, or giving rise to, pressure or to an increase of pressure; as, pressor nerve fibers, stimulation of which excites the vasomotor center, thus causing a stronger contraction of the arteries and consequently an increase of the arterial blood pressure; -- opposed to depressor. Landois & Stirling.…

The young tissue of a fibrovascular bundle before its component cells have begun to be differentiated. Sachs.

ous principles, containing, as a rule, a small amount of sulphur; an albuminoid, as blood fibrin, casein of milk, etc. Proteids are present in nearly all animal fluids and make up the greater part of animal tissues and organs. They are also important constituents of vegetable tissues. See 2d Note under Food. -- Pro"te…

oria, usually of a gray color, the pores of which are capillary and parallel, giving it a fibrous structure. It is supposed to be produced by the disengagement of watery vapor without liquid or plastic lava. It is much used, esp. in the form of powder, for smoothing and polishing. Called also pumice stone.…

A fibrous material used for tying plants, said to come from the leaves of a palm tree of the genus Raphia. J. Smith (Dict. Econ. Plants).

a) native of Madagascar, and of considerable economic importance on account of the strong fiber (raffia) obtained from its leafstalks.

The grasscloth plant (Boehmeria nivea); also, its fiber, which is very fine and exceedingly strong; -- called also China grass, and rhea. See Grass-cloth plant, under Grass.

A line, ridge, furrow, or band of fibers, especially in the median line; as, the raphe of the tongue.

oots of the spinal cord (their stimulation causing pain) owing to the presence of sensory fibers from the corresponding sensory or posterior roots.

The transference of an excitement from one nerve fiber to another by means of the nerve cells, as in reflex action. See Reflex action, under Reflex. Angle of reflection, the angle which anything, as a ray of light, on leaving a reflecting surface, makes with the perpendicular to the surface. -- Angle of total reflecti…

find a renitency in ourselves to ascribe life and irritability to the cold and motionless fibers of plants. E. Darwin.

or chemically in changing the color so as to render it incapable of fixing itself in the fibers.. The pastes prepared for this purpose are called resist pastes. F. C. Calvert.

Formed like a rope; -- applied especially to several ropelike bundles or masses of fibers on the dorsal side of the medulla oblongata.

To prepare for use, as flax, by separating the fibers from the woody part by process of soaking, macerating, and other treatment. Ure.

Having veins, fibers, or lines crossing like the threads or fibers of a network; as, a reticulate leaf; a reticulated surface; a reticulated wing of an insect. Reticulated glass, ornamental ware made from glass in which one set of white or colored lines seems to meet and interlace with another set in a different plane.…

licate membrane by which the back part of the globe of the eye is lined, and in which the fibers of the optic nerve terminate. See Eye.

of the ocelli, or ommatidia, of the eyes of invertebrates, and contain the terminal nerve fibrillæ. See Illust. under Ommatidium.

ue to the formation of myosin by the coagulation of the contents of the individual muscle fibers.