Search the Dictionary

A sudden depression of the vital forces of the entire body, or of a port of it, marking some profound impression produced upon the nervous system, as by severe injury, overpowering emotion, or the like.

the solid parts of the body. It rests on the view that the solids alone are endowed with vital properties, and can receive the impression of agents tending to produce disease.

t collects on the teeth and tongue in low fevers and other conditions attended with great vital depression.

The seat of real life or vitality; the source of action; the animating or essential part. "The hidden soul of harmony." Milton. Thou sun, of this great world both eye and soul. Milton.

le. "If any spark of life be yet remaining." Shak. "Small intellectual spark." Macaulay. "Vital spark of heavenly flame." Pope. We have here and there a little clear light, some sparks of bright knowledge. Locke. Bright gem instinct with music, vocal spark. Wordsworth. Spark arrester, a contrivance to prevent the escap…

istence; an intelligence conceived of apart from any physical organization or embodiment; vital essence, force, or energy, as distinct from matter.

An instrument for measuring the vital capacity of the lungs, or the volume of air which can be expelled from the chest after the deepest possible inspiration. Cf. Pneumatometer.

The Stahlian theoru, that every vital action is function or operation of the soul.

Produced increased vital action in the organism, or in any of its parts.

That which excites or produces a temporary increase of vital action, either in the whole organism or in any of its parts; especially (Physiol.), any substance or agent capable of evoking the activity of a nerve or irritable muscle, or capable of producing an impression upon a sensory organ or more particularly upon its…

iation of parts. The passage from a structureless state to a structured state is itself a vital process. H. Spencer.

To sink into a fainting fit, in which there is an apparent suspension of the vital functions and mental powers; to faint; -- often with away. The sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. Lam. ii. 11. The most in years . . . swooned first away for pain. Dryden. He seemed ready to swoon away in the surprise of joy. Ta…

Vital; as, teleorganic functions.

h abolition of all evidences of mental activity and the reduction to a minimum of all the vital functions so that the patient lies still and apparently unconscious of surrounding objects, while the pulsation of the heart and the breathing, although still present, are almost or altogether imperceptible. He fell down in…

a rope, bar, spar, or the like, and sliding thereon. Traveler's joy (Bot.), the Clematis vitalba, a climbing plant with white flowers. -- Traveler's tree. (Bot.) See Ravenala.

porting a theodolite, compass, telescope, camera, or other instrument. Tripod of life, or Vital tripod (Physiol.), the three organs, the heart, lungs, and brain; -- so called because their united action is necessary to the maintenance of life.

causing brown spots upon the green parts, and finally a hardening and destruction of the vitality of the surface. The plant has been called Oidium Tuckeri, but is now thought to be the conidia- producing stage of an Erysiphe. -- Vine of Sodom (Bot.), a plant named in the Bible (Deut. xxxii. 32), now thought to be ide…

rgin's bower (Bot.), a name given to several climbing plants of the genus Clematis, as C. Vitalba of Europe, and C. Virginiana of North America.

dead force; force doing no active work, but only producing pressure. -- Vis vitæ, or Vis vitalis Etym: [L.] (Physiol.), vital force. -- Vis viva Etym: [L.] (Mech.), living force; the force of a body moving against resistance, or doing work, in distinction from vis mortua, or dead force; the kinetic energy of a moving…

Tenacity of life; vital force; natural vigor. [Obs.] The vivacity of some of these pensioners is little less than a miracle, they lived so long. Fuller.