Clinanthium

[Gr., a bed, and anthos, a flower.] ( Bot.) The receptacle of a composite plant. It is the dilated apex of a flowering branch covered over by small flowers enclosed within an involucre. Clinch, Clench, v. α. [Du. klinken, from klink, a rivet, a latch; Swed. and Goth. klinka , the latch of a door.] To fix or fasten; to rivet; to grasp or gripe with the hand; to bend the fingers inward to the palm; to bind; as, to clinch a nail, to clinch the fist. and yet the means by which nature has provided for these vici itudes of temperature are as simple as they are beautiful. Although nature has been thus bountiful in enabling man to live with safety under the gloom of an arctic winter, or on the scorching plains of a torrid zone, some judgment and prudence are demanded from the man himself, if he hopes to pa through his probation in either condition with comfort and safety. That he may not err in his adoption of such nece ary rules, he is a isted by a species of instinct and by a number of examples, which, if he exercise the reasoning properties with which he has been so largely endowed, can only through ignorance or inattention cause him to do other than always turn such evidences to his benefit and guidance. The first of these is the natural craving of the system for a dietary in accordance with the temperature of the country in which the individual is placed that is, according as the stomach and imagination are left unfettered by prejudice or custom to follow an independent course of action. Thus, under a vertical sun, when the exhaustion from heat is exce ive, and the circulation of the blood is in advance of the natural course, a full and stimulating diet of animal food is itself not only highly injudicious and uncalled for, but, when persevered in, becomes actually hurtful, and may be, under certain conditions, dangerous to the - To make firm; to determine; to render conclusive; to integrity of the system. Again, if, under the crushing influence of perpetual frost and snow, a man attempt to -n. keep up his animal heat and resist the depre ing potency of benumbing cold, by an Asiatic or vegetarian -Any word used with a double or ambiguous meaning. dietary, the consequences would be equally dangerous, and even more rapidly fatal. In the same manner, the color of the natural clothing of the wild animals of the region should appeal to the judgment of man, and instruct him always to dre as nearly as po ible in the same tone as that of the native denizens of the bush or plain, the ice-floe or the jungle. Why man can endure with impunity ranges of temperature that, described by the readings of the thermometer, would to many appear perfectly absurd, proceeds entirely from the balance of power kept up between the temperature of the skin and that of the surrounding atmosphere, by the circulation of the blood through the lungs raising the temperature, by the absorption and mixture of oxygen from the air with the carbon in the blood, and the giving off of carbonic acid gas; animal heat being created by the instantaneous change. The more frequently a man breathes, as in running, the greater is the amount of heat the "Heroes whose... hands yet.. clinch the pointed spear." Dryden. establish; as, to clinch an argument. Act or proce of clutching or holding fast; as, to get the clinch of a weapon. "Pure clinches the suburban muse affords." - Dryden. (Naut.) The great ring attached to the mooring chain. A half-hitch of rope fastened to its own part. Clinch, in Georgia , a S. co. bordering on Florida; area , about 1,000 sq. m. It is bounded on the W. by Allapaha river. The surface is level, and partly covered with swamps. Cap . Homerville. Pop . (1890) 6.652. Clinch Dale, in Tenne ee, a village of Hawkins co., 250 m. E. of Nashville. IMG:content-0227.png:[blocks in formation] individual experiences. It is from this fact the gene- Clinch'er-built, a. ( Naut .) See CLINKER-BUILT. ration of an extra amount of animal heat, with a corre- Clinch'er-work, n. ( Naut .) See CLINKER-WORK. sponding evaporation from the surface of the body that the man who some years ago, in France, exhibited himself seated in a baker's oven, while his dinner was being cooked at his feet, was enabled to endure without danger so high a temperature, and for so comparatively long a period of time.