fascia (or fashia)

[Lat.=a sash, a band, a fillet.] 1. Dre : A bandage employed in various ways, as *(1) A diadem, worn round the head as an emblem of royalty, the color being white: that worn by women was purple. *(2) As a support to the breast by women. *(3) As a bandage round the legs, especially of women, from the ankle to the knee, serving as a protection or a support to the legs of the wearer, a practice that was adopted in Europe in the middle ages. (4) As a bandage for enswathing the bodies of infants, as practiced by the modern peasants of Italy. "The fascia is found a convenient style of dre for mothers and nurses." -Country Life in Italy , in Corn hill Magazine , Nov., 1881. 2. Anat .: A thin, tendon-like covering surrounding the muscles of the limbs, and binding them in their places; a tendinous expansion or aponeurosis. The fasciæ are named from (1) the position, as the anal and lumbar fasciæ; (2) from some peculiar function, as the crem a steric ; or (3) from some peculiarity, as the cribriform fascia. 3. Arch .: A flat architectural member in an en tablature or elsewhere; a band or broad fillet. architrave in the more ele gant orders of architecture is divided into three bands, which are called fascise; the lowest be ing called the first fascia, the w middle one the second, and the upper one the third. When The IMG:content-1443.jpg:[blocks in formation] *4. Astron.: The belt of a planet. "Jupiter's fasciæ , or belts, are more luminous than the rest of his disc, and are included between parallel lines." -Oxford: Encyclopædia: 5. Entom .: A broad, transverse band. 6. Surg .: A bandage, roller, or ligature. fas-çi-al (orfash'-I-al), a. [Low Lat. fascial is from Lat. fasces.] Of or pertaining to fasces. fas-çi-a-lis (orfash-i-ā-lis), 8. [FASCIA.] Anat.: A long, small, and flattened muscle situate at the anterior part of the thigh; called also Sar. tori us (q. v.).