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cipally developed in the Rocky Mountain region, as in the Laramie Mountains, and formerly supposed to be of the Tertiary age, but now generally regarded as Cretaceous, or of intermediate and transitional character. It contains beds of lignite, often valuable for coal, and is hence also called the lignitic group. See Ch…

h species of change. -- Latent period. (a) (Med.) The regular time in which a disease is supposed to be existing without manifesting itself. (b) (Physiol.) One of the phases in a simple muscular contraction, in which invisible preparatory changes are taking place in the nerve and muscle. (c) (Biol.) One of those perio…

A supposed new metallic element. It is said to have been discovered in pyrites, and some other minerals, and to be of a silver-white color, and malleable.

us Amorpha (A. canescens), found in the Northwestern United States, where its presence is supposed to indicate lead ore. Gray. -- Lead tree. (a) (Bot.) A West Indian name for the tropical, leguminous tree, Leucæna glauca; -- probably so called from the glaucous color of the foliage. (b) (Chem.) Lead crystallized in ar…

A hypothetical land, or continent, supposed by some to have existed formerly in the Indian Ocean, of which Madagascar is a remnant. Herschel.

rtain very minute whitish or colorless granules occurring in the protoplasm of plants and supposed to be the nuclei around which starch granules will form.

ce from the line in which a force acts upon a body to a point about which the body may be supposed to turn.

a picture; that part of a picture which represents those objects upon which the light is supposed to fall; the more illuminated part of a landscape or other scene; -- opposed to shade. Cf. Chiaroscuro.

A change in the character of a cell wall, by which it becomes harder. It is supposed to be due to an incrustation of lignin.

An extramundane region where certain classes of souls were supposed to await the judgment. As far from help as Limbo is from bliss. Shak. A Limbo large and broad, since called The Paradise of fools. Milton.

battle ship. See Ship of the line, below. -- Line of beauty (Fine Arts),an abstract line supposed to be beautiful in itself and absolutely; -- differently represented by different authors, often as a kind of elongated S (like the one drawn by Hogarth). -- Line of centers. (Mach.) (a) A line joining two centers, or fu…

rtaining to, or derived from, fat. The word was formerly used specifically to designate a supposed acid obtained by the oxidation of oleic acid, tallow, wax, etc.

A medicine having, or supposed to have, the power of expelling calculous matter with the urine. Hooper.

s concretions (otoliths). They are found in many Medusæ, and other invertebrates, and are supposed to be auditory organs.

n with concentric chambers, observed in some volcanic rocks, as in rhyolitic lavas. It is supposed to be produced by expanding gas, whence the name.

minant (Auchenia llama), allied to the camels, but much smaller and without a hump. It is supposed to be a domesticated variety of the guanaco. It was formerly much used as a beast of burden in the Andes.

Pertaining to, or derived from, the locust; -- formerly used to designate a supposed acid.

dness; properly, the kind of insanity which is broken by intervals of reason, -- formerly supposed to be influenced by the changes of the moon; any form of unsoundness of mind, except idiocy; mental derangement or alienation. Brande. Burrill. Your kindred shuns your house As beaten hence by your strange lunacy. Shak.…

A bone of the human body which was supposed by certain Rabbinical writers to be indestructible. Its location was a matter of dispute. Brande & C.

The supposed act of turning one's self or another person into a wolf. Lowell.