signalment

[Fr. sign ale ment.] 1. The act of signaling. significant blood. By virtue of a similar a ociation of ideas, the ginseng, which is still largely used in China, was also employed by the Indians of North America, and in both countries its virtues were deduced from the shape of the root, which is supposed to resemble the human body."Tylor: Early Hist . Mankind (ed. 1878), pp. 122, 123. sig-na-ture, v. t. [SIGNATURE, 8.] To mark out, to distinguish. "Those who, by the order of Providence and situation of life, have been sig natured to intellectual profe ions." -Cheyne: E ay on Regimen , p. 30. *sig-na-tür-ist, subst . [Eng.signatur(e); -ist.] One who holds to the doctrine that signatures impre ed upon various objects indicate their characters or qualities. "Sig naturists have somewhat advanced it, who seldom omitting what ancients delivered; drawing into inferences received distinctions of sex, not willing to examine chu its human resemblance." - Browne: Vulgar Errors, bk. ii.,