corpus

n. [ L. corpusculum, dim. of corpus. ] 1. A minute particle; an atom; a molecule. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Virchow showed that the corpuscles of bone are homologous with those of connective tissue. Quain's Anat. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Physics) An electron. [ archaic ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

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 hæmoglobin 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. corpusculaire. ] Pertaining to, or composed of, corpuscles, or small particles. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An adherent of the corpuscular philosophy. Bentley. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Corpuscular. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A corpuscle. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]