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One who describes crystals, or the manner of their formation; one versed in crystallography.

ation, teaching the system of forms among crystals, their structure, and their methods of formation.

to inquire, investigate, or seek after knowledge; a desire to gratify the mind with new information or objects of interest; inquisitiveness. Milton.

A disease in which the body is colored blue in its surface, arising usually from a malformation of the heart, which causes an imperfect arterialization of the blood; blue jaundice.

sciences); circle of human knowledge. Hence, a work containing, in alphabetical order, information in all departments of knowledge, or on a particular department or branch; as, a cyclopedia of the physical sciences, or of mechanics. See Encyclopedia.

A subdivision at the base of the cretaceous formation in Western North America; -- so named from the region where the strata were first studied.

the body as a whole. Degradation of energy, or Dissipation of energy (Physics), the transformation of energy into some form in which it is less available for doing work.

Formation and separation of laminæ or layers; one of the methods by which the various blastodermic layers of the ovum are differentiated.

The formation of a delta or of deltas. [R.]

Pertaining to a demiurge; formative; creative. "Demiurgic power." De Quincey.

Formation of teeth; toothed form. [R.] How did it [a bill] get its barb, its dentation Paley.

A suffix or terminal formative, much used in anatomical terms, and signifying skin, integument, covering; as, blastoderm, ectoderm, etc.

The change of vapor into water, as in the formation of rain.

onversion of molten glassy matter into a stony mass by slow cooling, the result being the formation of crystallites, microbites, etc., in the glassy base, which are then called devitrification products.

an; -- called also the Age of fishes. The various strata of this age compose the Devonian formation or system, and include the old red sandstone of Great Britain. They contain, besides plants and numerous invertebrates, the bony portions of many large and remarkable fishes of extinct groups. See the Diagram under Geolo…

l division, the loops of the nuclear network separate into two groups, preparatory to the formation of two daughter nuclei. See Karyokinesis.

The gradual formation or production of organs or parts by a process of evolution or development, as when the seed develops the root and the stem, the initial stem develops the leaf, branches, and flower buds; or in animal life, when the germ evolves the digestive and other organs and members, or when the animals as the…

, in all directions; to spread; to circulate; to disseminate; to scatter; as to diffuse information. Thence diffuse His good to worlds and ages infinite. Milton. We find this knowledge diffused among all civilized nations. Whewell.

To finger; as, to digitize a pen. [R.] Sir T. Browne. computers to convert (information, a signal, an image) into a form expressible in binary notation

fore washing. Dirt bed (Geom.), a layer of clayey earth forming a stratum in a geological formation. Dirt beds are common among the coal measures. -- Dirt eating. (a) The use of certain kinds of clay for food, existing among some tribes of Indians; geophagism. Humboldt. (b) (Med.) Same as Chthonophagia. -- Dirt pie,…