Search the Dictionary

tapitaka [Pali] , or Basket of Discourses; and Abhidhammapitaka [Pali] , or Basket of Metaphysics.

(Med.), a minute vegetable organism (Bacillus tuberculosis) discovered by Koch, a German physician, in the sputum of consumptive patients and in tuberculous tissue, and believed to be the exciting cause of tubercles and tuberculosis.

nly one thread, wire, fiber, or the like; as, unifilar suspension. Unifilar magnetometer (Physics), an instrument which consists of a magnetic bar suspended at its center of gravity by a long thread, constituting a delicate means for accurately measuring magnetic intensities, also for determining declinations of the ma…

tor; thus, unit of the fraction -- Integral unit, the unit of integral numbers, or 1. -- Physical unit, a value or magnitude conventionally adopted as a unit or standard in physical measurements. The various physical units are usually based on given units of length, mass, and time, and on the density or other properti…

h is united at once to four different atoms or radicals. This condition usually occasions physical isomerism, with the attendant action on polarized light.

Power of seeing, either physically or mentally; reach or range of sight; extent of prospect. The walls of Pluto's palace are in view. Dryden.

Active strength or force of body or mind; capacity for exertion, physically, intellectually, or morally; force; energy. The vigor of this arm was never vain. Dryden.

Possessing vigor; full of physical or mental strength or active force; strong; lusty; robust; as, a vigorous youth; a vigorous plant. Famed for his valor, young, At sea successful, vigorous and strong. Waller.

s Peter's, or of making tents, which was Paul's, were [was] more vile than the science of physic. Ridley. The inhabitants account gold but as a vile thing. Abp. Abbot.

The quality or state of being violent; highly excited action, whether physical or moral; vehemence; impetuosity; force. That seal You ask with such a violence, the king, Mine and your master, with his own hand gave me. Shak. All the elements At least had gone to wrack, disturbed and torn With the violence of this confl…

Moving or acting with physical strength; urged or impelled with force; excited by strong feeling or passion; forcible; vehement; impetuous; fierce; furious; severe; as, a violent blow; the violent attack of a disease. Float upon a wild and violent sea. Shak. A violent cross wind from either coast. Milton.…

s of application, -- first used by Clausius in the investigation of problems in molecular physics.

Physical force.

The faculty of seeing; sight; one of the five senses, by which colors and the physical qualities of external objects are appreciated as a result of the stimulating action of light on the sensitive retina, an expansion of the optic nerve.

or the purpose of friendship, business, curiosity, etc.; to attend; to call upon; as, the physician visits his patient.

a mysterious and unfathomable character, nor vital force as anything other than a form of physical energy derived from, and convertible into, other well- known forces of nature. -- Vital functions (Physiol.), those functions or actions of the body on which life is directly dependent, as the circulation of the blood, d…

of a living organism are due to an unknown vital principle distinct from all chemical and physical forces.

A believer in the theory of vitalism; -- opposed to physicist.

or effect, incapable of confirmation or ratification; null. Cf. Voidable, 2. Void space (Physics), a vacuum.

d respectively by the specific gravity of the substance in question. -- Specific volume (Physics & Chem.), the quotient obtained by dividing unity by the specific gravity; the reciprocal of the specific gravity. It is equal (when the specific gravity is referred to water at 4º C. as a standard) to the number of cubic…