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secretion of, or object touched by, such a patient. Most such diseases have already been proved to be germ diseases, and their communicability depends on the transmission of the living germs. Many germ diseases are not contagious, some special method of transmission or inoculation of the germs being required.…

limits; as, the contents of a cask or bale or of a room; the contents of a book. I shall prove these writings . . . authentic, and the contents true, and worthy of a divine original. Grew.

To check by a counter register or duplicate account; to prove by counter statements; to confute. [Obs.] This report was controlled to be false. Fuller.

Proved or found guilty; convicted. [Obs.] Shak. Convict by flight, and rebel to all law. Milton.

To confute; to prove the fallacy of. [Obs.] God never wrought miracle to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. Bacon.

Capable of being confuted and disproved by argument; refutable. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

To bring back, or attempt to bring back, to propriety in morals; to reprove or punish for faults or deviations from moral rectitude; to chastise; to discipline; as, a child should be corrected for lying. My accuser is my 'prentice; and when I did correct him for his fault the other day, he did vow upon his knees he wou…

Any external application intended to beautify and improve the complexion.

external world. Cosmothetic idealists (Metaph.), those who assume, without attempting to prove, the reality of external objects as corresponding to, and being the ground of, the ideas of which only the mind has direct cognizance. The cosmothetic idealists . . . deny that mind is immediately conscious of matter. Sir W.…

To encourage; to favor; to approve; to aid; to abet. This conceit, though countenanced by learned men, is not made out either by experience or reason. Sir T. Browne. Error supports custom, custom countenances error. Milton.

A check; a stop; a rebuke, or censure to check a reprover.

plot, by plotting; to attempt to frustrate, as a stratagem, by stratagem. Every wile had proved abortive, every plot had been counterplotted. De Quinsey.

A cowl-shaped cap, commonly turning with the wind, used to improve the draft of a chimney, ventilatingshaft, etc.

A company licensed for the purpose of carrying out improvements, by means of loans and advances upon real securities. ]

A standard of judging; any approved or established rule or test, by which facts, principles opinions, and conduct are tried in forming a correct judgment respecting them. Of the diseases of the mind there is no criterion. Donne. Inferences founded on such enduring criteria. Sir G. C. Lewis.

s transversely an irregularly, so as to interfere with splitting or planing. If the stuff proves crossgrained, . . . then you must turn your stuff to plane it the contrary way. Moxon.

Intense suffering or affliction; painful trial. Do ye prove What crucifixions are in love Herrick.

To improve by labor, care, or study; to impart culture to; to civilize; to refine. To cultivate the wild, licentious savage. Addison. The mind of man hath need to be prepared for piety and virtue; it must be cultivated to the end. Tillotson.

The art or act of cultivating; improvement for agricultural purposes or by agricultural processes; tillage; production by tillage.

The state of being cultivated; result of cultivation; physical improvement; enlightenment and discipline acquired by mental and moral training; civilization; refinement in manners and taste. What the Greeks expressed by their humanitas, we less happily try to express by the more artificial word culture. J. C. Shairp. T…