Con`ser*va"tion (?), n.
[L. conservatio: cf. F. conservation.]
The act of
preserving, guarding, or protecting; the keeping (of a thing) in a safe or entire state; preservation.
A step necessary for the conservation of Protestantism.
Hallam.
A state without the means of some change is without the means of its
conservation.
Burke.
Conservation of areas
(Astron.), the principle that the radius vector drawn from a planet
to the sun
sweeps over equal areas in equal times. -- Conservation of energy, or Conservation of force (Mech.), the
principle that the total energy of any
material system is a quantity
which can neither be increased nor diminished by any action between the parts of the system, though it may be
transformed into any of the forms of
which energy is susceptible. Clerk Maxwell.
Hear it pronounced