crystalline lens

crystalline lens
    n 1: biconvex transparent body situated behind the iris in the
         eye; its role (along with the cornea) is to focuses light
         on the retina [syn: {lens}, {crystalline lens}, {lens of
         the eye}]
    

Humor \Hu"mor\, n. [OE. humour, OF. humor, umor, F. humeur, L.
   humor, umor, moisture, fluid, fr. humere, umere, to be moist.
   See {Humid}.] [Written also {humour}.]
   1. Moisture, especially, the moisture or fluid of animal
      bodies, as the chyle, lymph, etc.; as, the humors of the
      eye, etc.
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   Note: The ancient physicians believed that there were four
         humors (the blood, phlegm, yellow bile or choler, and
         black bile or melancholy), on the relative proportion
         of which the temperament and health depended.
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   2. (Med.) A vitiated or morbid animal fluid, such as often
      causes an eruption on the skin. "A body full of humors."
      --Sir W. Temple.
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   3. State of mind, whether habitual or temporary (as formerly
      supposed to depend on the character or combination of the
      fluids of the body); disposition; temper; mood; as, good
      humor; ill humor.
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            Examine how your humor is inclined,
            And which the ruling passion of your mind.
                                                  --Roscommon.
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            A prince of a pleasant humor.         --Bacon.
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            I like not the humor of lying.        --Shak.
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   4. pl. Changing and uncertain states of mind; caprices;
      freaks; vagaries; whims.
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            Is my friend all perfection, all virtue and
            discretion? Has he not humors to be endured?
                                                  --South.
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   5. That quality of the imagination which gives to ideas an
      incongruous or fantastic turn, and tends to excite
      laughter or mirth by ludicrous images or representations;
      a playful fancy; facetiousness.
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            For thy sake I admit
            That a Scot may have humor, I'd almost said wit.
                                                  --Goldsmith.
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            A great deal of excellent humor was expended on the
            perplexities of mine host.            --W. Irving.
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   {Aqueous humor}, {Crystalline humor} or {Crystalline lens},
   {Vitreous humor}. (Anat.) See {Eye}.

   {Out of humor}, dissatisfied; displeased; in an unpleasant
      frame of mind.

   Syn: Wit; satire; pleasantry; temper; disposition; mood;
        frame; whim; fancy; caprice. See {Wit}.
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Lens \Lens\ (l[e^]nz), n.; pl. {Lenses} (-[e^]z). [L. lens a
   lentil. So named from the resemblance in shape of a double
   convex lens to the seed of a lentil. Cf. {Lentil}.] (Opt.)
   A piece of glass, or other transparent substance, ground with
   two opposite regular surfaces, either both curved, or one
   curved and the other plane, and commonly used, either singly
   or combined, in optical instruments, for changing the
   direction of rays of light, and thus magnifying objects, or
   otherwise modifying vision. In practice, the curved surfaces
   are usually spherical, though rarely cylindrical, or of some
   other figure.
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   Note: Of spherical lenses, there are six varieties, as shown
         in section in the figures herewith given: viz., a
         plano-concave; b double-concave; c plano-convex; d
         double-convex; e converging concavo-convex, or
         converging meniscus; f diverging concavo-convex, or
         diverging meniscus.
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   {Crossed lens} (Opt.), a double-convex lens with one radius
      equal to six times the other.

   {Crystalline lens}. (Anat.) See {Eye}.

   {Fresnel lens} (Opt.), a compound lens formed by placing
      around a central convex lens rings of glass so curved as
      to have the same focus; used, especially in lighthouses,
      for concentrating light in a particular direction; -- so
      called from the inventor.

   {Multiplying lens} or {Multiplying glass} (Opt.), a lens one
      side of which is plane and the other convex, but made up
      of a number of plane faces inclined to one another, each
      of which presents a separate image of the object viewed
      through it, so that the object is, as it were, multiplied.
      

   {Polyzonal lens}. See {Polyzonal}.
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Crystalline \Crys"tal*line\ (kr?s"tal-l?n or -l?n; 277), a. [L.
   crystallinus, from Gr. ????: cf. F. cristallin. See
   {Crystal}.]
   1. Consisting, or made, of crystal.
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            Mount, eagle, to my palace crystalline. --Shak.
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   2. Formed by crystallization; like crystal in texture.
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            Their crystalline structure.          --Whewell.
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   3. Imperfectly crystallized; as, granite is only crystalline,
      while quartz crystal is perfectly crystallized.
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   4. Fig.: Resembling crystal; pure; transparent; pellucid.
      "The crystalline sky." --Milton.
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   {Crystalline heavens}, or {Crystalline spheres}, in the
      Ptolemaic system of astronomy, two transparent spheres
      imagined to exist between the region of the fixed stars
      and the primum mobile (or outer circle of the heavens,
      which by its motion was supposed to carry round all those
      within it), in order to explain certain movements of the
      heavenly bodies.

   {Crystalline lens} (Anat.), the capsular lenslike body in the
      eye, serving to focus the rays of light. It consists of
      rodlike cells derived from the external embryonic
      epithelium.
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