Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The peculiar substance, resembling if not identical with vegetable cellulose, found in the integument of the tunicates; animal cellulose.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Physiol. Chem.) Animal cellulose; a substance present in the mantle, or tunic, of the Tunicates, which resembles, or is identical with, the cellulose of the vegetable kingdom.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun biochemistry
Animal cellulose ; a substance present in themantle , ortunic , of thetunicates , which resembles, or is identical with, the cellulose of thevegetable kingdom .
Etymologies
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Examples
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The main interest of the question of course lies in its bearing on the long-disputed relations between plants and animals; for, since neither locomotion nor irritability is peculiar to animals; since many insectivorous plants habitually digest solid food; since cellulose, that most characteristic of vegetable products, is practically identical with the tunicin of Ascidians, it becomes of the greatest interest to know whether the chlorophyl of animals preserves its ordinary vegetable function of effecting or aiding the decomposition of carbonic anhydride and the synthetic production of starch.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 324, March 18, 1882 Various
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