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A certain function relating to a system of forces and their points of application, -- first used by Clausius in the investigation of problems in molecular physics.

Belonging or relating to life, either animal or vegetable; as, vital energies; vital functions; vital actions.

The doctrine that all the functions of a living organism are due to an unknown vital principle distinct from all chemical and physical forces.

blind and irrational will, Fichte holding that the intelligent activity of the ego is the fundamental fact of reality.

A saclike envelope of certain fungi, which bursts open as the plant develops.

r labor; recompense; hire. See Wage, n., 2. The wages of sin is death. Rom. vi. 23. Wages fund (Polit. Econ.), the aggregate capital existing at any time in any country, which theoretically is unconditionally destined to be paid out in wages. It was formerly held, by Mill and other political economists, that the averag…

pect. [Obs.] He chose a thousand horse, the flower of all His warlike troops, to wait the funeral. Dryden. Remorse and heaviness of heart shall wait thee, And everlasting anguish be thy portion. Rowe.

y for solemn or festive purposes; a vigil. The warlike wakes continued all the night, And funeral games played at new returning light. Dryden. The wood nymphs, decked with daises trim, Their merry wakes and pastimes keep. Milton.

ving external openings, found in many invertebrates. They are believed to be analogous in function to the kidneys of vertebrates. See Illust. under Trematodea, and Sporocyst.

Lacking ability for an appropriate function or office; as, weak eyes; a weak stomach; a weak magistrate; a weak regiment, or army.

A disease of wheat and other grasses caused by the rust fungus Puccinia graminis; also, the fungus itself.

oms (Bot.), tufted and distorted branches of the silver fir, caused by the attack of some fungus. Maunder (Treas. of Bot.) -- Witches' butter (Bot.), a name of several gelatinous cryptogamous plants, as Nostoc commune, and Exidia glandulosa. See Nostoc. -- Witch grass (Bot.), a kind of grass (Panicum capillare) with m…

A helmeted Australian cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus); -- called also funeral cockatoo.

A form of fungus which grows as indvidual rounded cells, rather than in a mycelium, and reproduces by budding; esp. members of the orders Endomycetales and Moniliales. Some fungi may grow both as a yeast or as a mycelium, depending on the conditions of growth. Yeast cake, a mealy cake impregnated with the live germs of…

same or of distinct individual plants. Zygosperms are found in certain orders of algæ and fungi.