me temp to sis (or p silent)

[Greek meta = beyond, and emptosis a falling upon; em for en= in, on, and ptosis a falling; pip to =to fall.] Chron.: The solar equation nece ary to prevent the new moon from happening a day too late, or the suppre ion of the bi extile once in 134 years. The opposite to this is the proem ptosis, or the add i "It is quite po ible to con' ave of an adult metazoon having the structure of a sponge embryo."-Huxley: Anat. Invert. Animals , p. 684. 2. Pl .: The second and higher division of the animal kingdom, the first and lower being Protozoa. [PROTOZOON.] The whole of the metazoa may be regarded as modifications of one actual or ideal primitive type, which is a sac with a double cellular wall, inclosing a central cavity, and open at one end. This is what is sometimes termed a gastrea. The first change which takes development of the embryo from the impregnated ovum is the division of the ovum, and the simplest form of division results in the formation of a sphe roidal ma of blastomeres. The morula thus formed generally acquires a central cavity, and becomes a hollow vesicle, the wall of which is the blastoderm, the cells of which give rise to the histological elements of the adult body. Sexual reproduction always occurs, and very generally the male element has the form of filiform spermatozoa. 2,400 years. [PROEM PTOSIS.] mět-en-çěph-a-lăn, s. [Pref. met-, and Gr. engkephalon = the brain.] Anat .: A term introduced by Quain for the afterbrain (the nachhirn of German embryologists). It contains the medulla oblong at a, the fourth ventricle, and the auditory nerve. Both the metencephalon and the epencephalon develop from the pos terior primary vesicle. *mět-en-sō-ma-to-sis, s . [Gr. meta , denoting change, and ensomatosis an embodying, from em for en in, and soma (gen it. somatos ) = a body.] The transference of the elements of one body into another body, and their conversion into its substance, as by decomposition and a imilation. declination, between Gamma and Epsilon Leonis, just north of the bright star Regulus. On an average, each meteor was visible about three seconds, and drew a cord of silver radiance from twenty to forty degrees in length. In Nov., 1867 and 1868, considerable star showers were seen in the United States. Similar displays have been seen in November of the years 902, 931, 934, 1002, 1101, 1202, 1366, 1533, 1602, 1698, 1799, 1832, and 1833. That of Nov. 12, 1799, was one of the finest. It was seen by Humboldt and Bonpland at Cumana, in South America. Prof. Adams places the more magnificent displays at intervals of thirty-three and a quarter years apart, and, if his theory be correct, the next will be due in 1899. It is believed that a ring of meteors revolves round the sun, portions of it very thickly studded with them, while at others they are only sparsely scattered. Every year the earth's orbit cuts through the ring, though only at intervals of about thirty three years through the part where they are most crowded. The meteors themselves are of iron, which, striking the atmosphere of the approaching earth with planetary velocity, ignite and go to dust. Leverrier considers that in A. D. 127 the attraction of the planet Uranus brought them into their present orbit. Heis and Alexander Herschel recognize about a hundred other meteor systems; hence it has been found needful to distinguish them by names. The Nevember meteors coming from the constellation Leo are called Leonids. The next in importance appear about August 10, and come from the constellation Perseus. They are therefore named Perseids. Of old they were called the Tears of St. Lawrence. They appear generally much earlier in the evening than the Leonids. In 1866 Prof. Alexander Herschel, son of Sir John Herschel, studying the August meteors with a spectroscope, found some of them to consist in large measure of sodium vapor, and to be "nothing else but soda flames." There are also Lyrids, Geminids, Orionids, Dra conids, Aqua riads, And rome des, . Prof. Schis parelli, of Milan, has shown that the orbits of particular comets often wonderfully coincide with those of meteoric rings. A small comet, called Temple's, invisible to the naked eye, coincides with the orbit of the November meteors, and a large one, called Tuttle's comet, visible to the naked eye in 1862 with that of the Perseids. The following is the generally accepted cla ification of meteors: 1. Telescopio Meteors, only rendered visible to the naked eye by the aid of telescopes. 2. Shooting - stars , visible to the naked eye, and com parable to the different apparent magnitudes of the fixed stars in brightne . 3. Bolides and Fireballs , or very luminous meteors, com parable in brilliancy to the planets Jupiter and Venus, and to the different phases of the moon, and sometimes even rivaling the sun by appearing with much splendor in broad daylight, the term bolides being usually applied to the smaller, and fireballs to the larger kinds. 4. Detonating or "Areolitic" Meteors, fireballs which produce an audible explosion, like a distant cannon, a peal of thunder, or an earthquake shock, by their concu ion with the air, and which differ accordingly from the last (as "forked" lightning often does from distant and "sheet" lightning) only by the thunder-clap that not unfrequently reverberates from fireballs of the largest and brightest cla ; or, finally, as 5. Stone falls and Iron falls (the latter very rare occurrences), or the falls of meteorites, either singly or in a shower, it may be of many you sands of fragments, from a fireball, which, especially if seen in the daytime, when these occurrences are usually observed, is almost always a large meteor of the last-named description. ( Brit . A oc. Report (1878), p. 371.) On Dec. 21, 1876, a detonating meteor exploded almost directly over the city of Blooming ton, Illinois, at a height of about 75 miles. Its detonation was so tremendous as to shake the city like an earthquake. Fragments of the meteor formed a cluster of fire-balls five miles wide and forty miles long. of The main portion of the meteorithmblin like thunder, eastward, and our atmosphere, over the Atlantic Ocean. On Feb. 10, 1896, a remarkable meteor exploded over the city of Madrid. Although it appeared during the daylight, its brilliancy was such as to dazzle the eyesight of persons in Madrid and to make it visible as far away as Gibraltar. It exploded at a height of about 15 miles, and so tremendous was the detonation that it was heard and its tremors felt over a radius exceeding fifty miles. sin, as; expect, Xenophon, exist. ph = 1. IMG:content-1160.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-1161.png:[blocks in formation] meteor. B. As substantive: the form or appearance of a meteor. 1. Gen.: Any moving body in the sky which has 2. Spec . ( pl .): Used by Schiaparelli for particles of a nebular ma or cloud destined ultimately to (Brit. A oc. Rep . (1871), p. 45.) meteor-current, s. The current or stream of become a meteoric-ring revolving round the sun. meteors moving together in the same orbit. meteor-like, adv . Like a meteor. IMG:content-1162.png:[blocks in formation] meteor-powder, s. [METEOR-STEEL.] meteor-ring, meteoric-ring, s. The orbit of a system of meteors. meteor-shower, meteoric-shower, s . Showers of meteors when the earth in her orbit intersects that of a meteoric-ring. [METEOR.] meteor-spectroscope, subst. A spectroscope specially adapted for observing meteors.