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An explosive agent; a compound or mixture susceptible of a rapid chemical reaction, as gunpowder, or nitro-glycerine.

ying substances or preserving them from moisture; a desiccator; also, less frequently, an agent employed to absorb moisture, as calcium chloride, or concentrated sulphuric acid.

One who does anything, good or bad; a doer; an agent. [Obs.] Br. Hacket.

One who transacts business for another; an agent; a substitute; especially, a mercantile agent who buys and sells goods and transacts business for others in commission; a commission merchant or consignee. He may be a home factor or a foreign factor. He may buy and sell in his own name, and he is intrusted with the poss…

A house or place where factors, or commercial agents, reside, to transact business for their employers. "The Company's factory at Madras." Burke.

One who fertilizes; the agent that carries the fertilizing principle, as a moth to an orchid. A. R. Wallace.

es its appearance in the blood shortly after it is shed, and is supposed to be the active agent in causing coagulation of the blood, with formation of fibrin.

sh. -- At first hand, from the first or original source; without the intervention of any agent. It is the intention of the person to reveal it at first hand, by way of mouth, to yourself. Dickens. -- First coat (Plastering), the solid foundation of coarse stuff, on which the rest is placed; it is thick, and crossed wi…

btained directly from the first or original source; hence, without the intervention of an agent. One sphere there is . . . where the apprehension of him is first-hand and direct; and that is the sphere of our own mind. J. Martineau.

d in the transportation of freight; having to do with freight; as, a freight car. Freight agent, a person employed by a transportation company to receive, forward, or deliver goods. -- Freight car. See under Car. -- Freight train, a railroad train made up of freight cars; -- called in England goods train.…

An agent exciting secretion of milk.

l fluids. It resembles peptone, and is variously regarded as a coagulating or emulsifying agent.

crystalline substance, C6H2(HO)3.CO2H, with an astringent taste, and is a strong reducing agent, as employed in photography. It is usually prepared from tannin, and both give a dark color with iron salts, forming tannate and gallate of iron, which are the essential ingredients of common black ink.

Destructive to germs; -- applied to any agent which has a destructive action upon living germs, particularly bacteria, or bacterial germs, which are considered the cause of many infectious diseases. -- n.

ccurring very widely distributed in plants, rarely in animals, and regarded as influental agents in the formation and disposition of the sugars. They are frequently of a bitter taste, but, by the action of ferments, or of dilute acids and alkalies, always break down into some characteristic substance (acid, aldehyde, a…

ut), to go below deck. -- To go between, to interpose or mediate between; to be a secret agent between parties; in a bad sense, to pander. -- To go beyond. See under Beyond. -- To go by, to pass away unnoticed; to omit. -- To go by the board (Naut.), to fall or be carried overboard; as, the mast went by the board.…

An intermediate agent; a broker; a procurer; -- usually in a disparaging sense. Shak.

very malleable and ductile. It is quite unalterable by heat, moisture, and most corrosive agents, and therefore well suited for its use in coin and jewelry. Symbol Au (Aurum). Atomic weight 196.7.

prominences which form on a raw surface (that of wounds or ulcers), and are the efficient agents in the process of healing.

A body obtained from hemoglobin, by the action of reducing agents in the absence of oxygen.