cat a baptist (kata baptist)

[ baptism. 853 of metabolism which consists in "a downward series of changes in which complex bodies are broken down with the setting free of energy into simpler and simpler waste bodies" ( M. Foster ): opposed to anabolism. The ingenious speculations of Hering, that specific colour-sensations are due to the relation of a imilation (anabolism) to di imilation ( katabolism ) of protoplasmic visual substances in the retina or in the brain. M. Foster, Encyc. Brit., XIX. 22.