Part 572

He touched the dead corpse of Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet. D. Webster.

Corpse candle. (a) A thick candle formerly used at a lich wake, or the customary watching with a corpse on the night before its interment. (b) A luminous appearance, resembling the flame of a candle, sometimes seen in churchyards and other damp places, superstitiously regarded as portending death. -- Corpse gate, the gate of a burial place through which the dead are carried, often having a covered porch; -- called also lich gate.

{ Cor"pu*lence (k?r"p?-lens), Cor"pu*len*cy (k?r"p?-len-s?), } n. [L. corpulentia: cf. F. corpulence.]

1. Excessive fatness; fleshiness; obesity.

2. Thickness; density; compactness. [Obs.]

The heaviness and corpulency of water requiring a great force to divide it. Ray.

Cor"pu*lent (-p?-lent), a. [L. corpulentus, fr. corpus: cf. F. corpulent. See Corpse.] 1. Very fat; obese.

2. Solid; gross; opaque. [Obs.] Holland.

Syn. -- Stout; fleshy; bulky; obese. See Stout.

Cor"pu*lent*ly, adv. In a corpulent manner.

||Cor"pus (-pŭs), n.; pl. Corpora (-p&osl;*r&adot;). [L.] A body, living or dead; the corporeal substance of a thing.

Corpus callosum (kăl*lō"sŭm); pl. Corpora callosa (-s&?;) [NL., callous body] (Anat.), the great band of commissural fibers uniting the cerebral hemispheres. See Brain. -- Corpus Christi (kr&ibreve;s"tī) [L., body of Christ] (R. C. Ch.), a festival in honor of the eucharist, observed on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. -- Corpus Christi cloth. Same as Pyx cloth, under Pyx. -- Corpus delicti (d&esl;*l&ibreve;k"tī) [L., the body of the crime] (Law), the substantial and fundamental fact of the comission of a crime; the proofs essential to establish a crime. -- Corpus luteum (lū"t&esl;*ŭm); pl. Corpora lutea (-&adot;). [NL., luteous body] (Anat.), the reddish yellow mass which fills a ruptured Graafian follicle in the mammalian ovary. -- Corpus striatum (str&isl;*ā"tŭm); pl. Corpora striata (-t&adot;). [NL., striate body] (Anat.), a ridge in the wall of each lateral ventricle of the brain.

Cor"pus*cle (-pŭs*s'l), n. [L. corpusculum, dim. of corpus.] 1. A minute particle; an atom; a molecule.

2. (Anat.) A protoplasmic animal cell; esp., such as float free, like blood, lymph, and pus corpuscles; or such as are imbedded in an intercellular matrix, like connective tissue and cartilage corpuscles. See Blood.

Virchow showed that the corpuscles of bone are homologous with those of connective tissue. Quain's Anat.

Red blood corpuscles (Physiol.), in man, yellowish, biconcave, circular discs varying from 1/3500 to 1/3200 of an inch in diameter and about 1/12400 of an inch thick. They are composed of a colorless stroma filled in with semifluid hŠmoglobin and other matters. In most mammals the red corpuscles are circular, but in the camels, birds, reptiles, and the lower vertebrates generally, they are oval, and sometimes more or less spherical in form. In Amphioxus, and most invertebrates, the blood corpuscles are all white or colorless. -- White blood corpuscles (Physiol.), rounded, slightly flattened, nucleated cells, mainly protoplasmic in composition, and possessed of contractile power. In man, the average size is about 1/2500 of an inch, and they are present in blood in much smaller numbers than the red corpuscles.

Cor*pus"cu*lar (k?r-p?s"k?-l?r), a. [Cf. F. corpusculaire.] Pertaining to, or composed of, corpuscles, or small particles.

Corpuscular philosophy, that which attempts to account for the phenomena of nature, by the motion, figure, rest, position, etc., of the minute particles of matter. -- Corpuscular theory (Opt.), the theory enunciated by Sir Isaac Newton, that light consists in the emission and rapid progression of minute particles or corpuscles. The theory is now generally rejected, and supplanted by the undulatory theory.

Cor*pus`cu*la"ri*an (-l?"r?-a]/>n), a. Corpuscular. [Obs.]

Cor*pus`cu*la"ri*an, n. An adherent of the corpuscular philosophy. Bentley.

Cor*pus"cule (k?r-p?s"k?l), n. A corpuscle. [Obs.]

Cor*pus"cu*lous (-k?-l?s), a. Corpuscular. Tyndall.

Cor*rade" (k?r-r?d"), v. t. [L. corradere, -rasum; cor- + radere to rub.] 1. To gnaw into; to wear away; to fret; to consume. [Obs.] Dr. R. Clerke.

2. (Geol.) To erode, as the bed of a stream. See Corrosion.

Cor*ra"di*al (k?r-r?"d?-a]/>l), a. Radiating to or from the same point. [R.] Coleridge.

Cor*ra"di*ate (k?r-r?"d?-?t), v. t. To converge to one point or focus, as light or rays.

Cor*ra`di*a"tion (k?r-r?`d?-?"sh?n), n. A conjunction or concentration of rays in one point. Bacom

Cor*ral" (k?r-r?l"; Sp. k?r-r?l"), n. [Sp., a yard, a yard for cattle, fr. corro a circle or ring, fr. L. currere to run. Cf. Kraal.] A pen for animals; esp., an inclosure made with wagons, by emigrants in the vicinity of hostile Indians, as a place of security for horses, cattle, etc.