endosmose, endosmosis

[ Gr.end on = within, and osis a thrusting; otheō =to thrust.] 1. Hydraul. & Pneum.: The name given by Dutrochet, and since universally adopted, for the current which pa es from outside inward when two liquids or two gases are separated by a porous diaphragm. When such a separation is made, it is found that liquid or gas will penetrate through its pores from first one side and then the other, till the same mixed liquid or the same mixed gas is on both sides of the partition. The endosmose or inward current is one of these, the exosmose or outward one is the other. 2. Physiology : (1) Animal : The transudation of substances in a state of perfect solution from the stomach to the blood-ve els by capillary attraction. When two fluids differ in density, the more dense transudes more slowly than the le : when one of these fluids is in a cavity or sac, the flow of the other to it is endosmose, or inward flow, while that outward is exosmose. (2) Vegetable : The same proce takes place between contiguous ve els in the case of the sap circulating in plants.