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See Caryopsis.

A one-celled, dry, indehiscent fruit, with a thin membranous pericarp, adhering closely to the seed, so that fruit and seed are incorporated in one body, forming a single grain, as of wheat, barley, etc.

A figure by which one word is wrongly put for another, or by which a word is wrested from its true signification; as, "To take arms against a sea of troubles. " Shak. "Her voice was but the shadow of a sound." Young.

A sudden suspension of sensation and volition, the body and limbs preserving the position that may be given them, while the action of the heart and lungs continues.

Dissolution; degeneration; decay. [R.] Sad catalysis and declension of piety. Evelyn.

That part of a speech, usually the exordium, in which the orator sets forth the subject matter to be discussed.

A natural or artificial purgation of any passage, as of the mouth, bowels, etc.

A traversing base frame, or movable railway, along which the carriage of a barbette or casemate gum moves backward and forward. [See Gun carriage.]

A term sometimes applied to the decomposition of organic substance into more simple bodies, by the use of chemical agents alone. Thudichum.

Inflammatory swelling of the conjunctival tissue surrounding the cornea. --Che*mot"ic (#), a.

Chemical action taking place through an intervening membrane.

Synthesis of organic compounds by energy derived from chemical changes or reactions. Chemosynthesis of carbohydrates occurs in the nitrite bacteria through the oxidation of ammonia to nitrous acid, and in the nitrate bacteria through the conversion of nitrous into nitric acid. -- Chem`o*syn*thet"ic (#), a.…

The green sickness; an anæmic disease of young women, characterized by a greenish or grayish yellow hue of the skin, weakness, palpitation, etc.

The development of cartilage.

The separation of a leaf or floral organ into two more parts.

Secretion of abnormally colored perspiration.

A spasmodic trembling of the upper eyelid.

of the liver in which it usually becomes smaller in size and more dense and fibrous in consistence; hence sometimes applied to similar changes in other organs, caused by increase in the fibrous framework and decrease in the proper substance of the organ.

A class or order; sort; kind. [Obs.] His opinion of that classis of men. Clarendon.

Common sensation or general sensibility, as distinguished from the special sensations which are located in, or ascribed to, separate organs, as the eye and ear. It is supposed to depend on the ganglionic system.