capillarity (kapilariti)

[L. capillaris (see capillary ) + -ity.] The state or condition of being capillary; capillary attraction. I was already perfectly familiar with the notion of a skin upon the surface of liquids, and I had been taught by means of it to work out problems in capillarity . W. K. Clifford, Lectures, I. 147. capillary (kap'i-lā-ri or ka-pil'a-ri), a. and n. [L. capillaris, pertaining to the hair (LL. herb a capillaris, maidenhair fern), Capillary or capillaceous plants are such as have no main stalk or stem, but grow to the ground, as hairs on the head; and which bear their seeds in little tufts or protuberances on the backside of their leaves. Quincy. 3. Resembling a single hair; specifically, in an at ., having (as a tube) so small a bore that 804 their spreading over surfaces (as oil on water), and various other phenomena explicable proxiproximately by surface-tension and ultimately by cohesion and adhesion, considered as forces acting at finite but insensible distances.-6. In surg., linear: descriptive of a fracture of the skull without separation of the parts of the injured bones. - Capillary antennæ, in entom., antennæ in which the joints are long, slender, and very loosely articulated, the outer ones being generally a little longer; this is regarded as a modification of the cla Capillaricattraction, capillary repul IMG:content-3088.png:[blocks in formation] sion, the exce deficiency of the attraction of one of two fluids (the other being generally air) for the wall of a ve el with which they have a common line of contact. The common surface of the wall and of the more attracted fluid makes the acuter angle with the common surface of the fluids. Capillary attraction is proximately accounted for by surface-tension; but the latter has to be explained by the attractions between the molecules of the fluids. See capillary tubes, below. - Capillary bottle, a bottle with a dropping-tube, used in preparing objects chit is. Capillary electrometer. See electro - capillary. for the microscope. - Capillary bronchitis. See bron Capillary filter, a simple water-filter, consisting of a cord of loose fiber, as a cotton candle-wick, one end of which is placed in the water, while the other end hangs over the edge of the ve el. The water is drawn through the cord by capillary action, without its impurities. - Capillary pyrites, mineral. See millerite. Capillary repulsion. See capillary attraction, above. Capillary tubes, tubes with very small bores, of which the diameter is only a half, a third, a fourth, etc., of a line. If a tube of this sort, open at both ends, is taken and one of its ends immersed in water, the water will rise within the tube to a sensible height above the surface of the water in the ve el, the height being inversely as the diameter of the bore; that is, the smaller the bore the greater the height. Different liquids rise in capillary tubes to different heights. The rise is explained by the action of cohesion as a force acting at insensible distances (hence called capillary at traction ), which produces a tension of the superficial film of the liquid (see surface - tension ) that exerts a pull upward where the surface is concave, as when the tube is moistened by the liquid (as gla or metal by water, alcohol, etc.), but a pre ure downward where the surface is convex; consequently, those liquids which do not adhere to or wet the surface of the tube immersed in them stand lower within than without. Mercury, for example, is depre ed in a gla tube, but rises in one of tin, to which it can adhere. The oil rises in the wick of a lamp or candle by this principle. — Capillary ve els, in an at., the capil laries. II. n.; pl. capillaries (-riz). 1. A tube with a small bore. Specifically-2. In an at .: ( a ) One of the minute blood-ve els which form a network between the terminations of the arteries and the beginnings of the veins. They are formed of a single endothelial coat, and the finer ones may be no larger in diameter than is sufficient to allow the pa age of a blood-corpuscle. (b) One of the minute lymphatic ducts. (c) One of the intercellular pa ages in the liver which unite to form the bile-ducts.-3t. In bot., a fern: especially applied to such ferns as grow like tufts of hair on walls. Sir T. Browne. See I., 2. capillationt (kap-i-lā'shon), n. [L. capilla tio (n-), prop. being hairy, 1727. IMG:content-3089.png:[blocks in formation] hair-like leaves. cap ill i form (ka-pil'i-form), a. [L. capillus, hair, + form a, form.] In the shape or form of a hair or hairs: as, a cap ill i form fiber. capillitium (kap-i-lish'i-um), n. [L., the hair collectively, Mycetozoa. capillose (kap'i-lōs), a. [L. capillosus, with hair.