So*lu"tion (s&osl;*lū"shŭn), n. [OE. solucion, OF.
solucion, F. solution, fr. L.
solutio, fr. solvere, solutum, to
loosen, dissolve. See Solve.]
1. The act
of separating the parts of any
body, or the
condition of undergoing a separation of parts; disruption; breach.
In all bodies there is an appetite of union and evitation of solution of continuity.
Bacon. 2. The act of
solving, or the state of being solved; the disentanglement of any intricate problem or difficult question; explanation; clearing
up; -- used especially in mathematics, either of the
process of solving an equation or problem, or the result
of the process.
3. The state of
being dissolved or
disintegrated; resolution; disintegration.
It is unquestionably an enterprise of more promise to assail the nations in their hour
of faintness and solution, than at a time when magnificent and seductive systems of worship were at their height of energy and splendor.
I.
Taylor. 4. (Chem.Phys.) The act or process by which a body
(whether solid, liquid, or gaseous) is absorbed into a liquid, and, remaining or becoming fluid, is diffused throughout the solvent; also, the product resulting from such absorption.
&fist; When a solvent will not take
in any more
of a substance the solution is said to be saturated. Solution
is of two
kinds; viz.: (a) Mechanical solution,
in which no
marked chemical change takes place, and in which,
in the case
of solids, the dissolved body can be
regained by evaporation,
as in the solution of salt or sugar
in water. (b) Chemical solution, in which there is involved a
decided chemical change, as when limestone or zinc undergoes solution in hydrochloric acid. Mechanical solution
is regarded as a
form of molecular or atomic attraction, and is probably occasioned by the formation of certain very weak and
unstable compounds which
are easily dissociated and pass into
new and similar compounds.
&fist; This word is not
used in chemistry or mineralogy for fusion, or the melting of bodies by the heat of fire.
5.
Release; deliverance; discharge. [Obs.] Barrow.
6. (Med.)
(a) The termination of a disease; resolution. (b) A crisis. (c)
A liquid medicine or preparation (usually aqueous) in which the solid ingredients are wholly soluble. U. S. Disp.
Fehling's solution (Chem.), a standardized solution of cupric hydrate in sodium potassium tartrate, used as a means of determining the reducing power of certain sugars and sirups by the amount
of red cuprous oxide thrown down. -- Heavy solution
(Min.), a liquid of high density, as a
solution of mercuric iodide in potassium iodide (called the
Sonstadt or Thoulet solution) having a maximum specific gravity of 3.2, or of
borotungstate of cadmium
(Klein solution, specific gravity 3.6), and the like.
Such solutions are much used in determining the specific gravities of minerals, and in separating them when mechanically mixed as in a pulverized
rock. -- Nessler's solution. See Nesslerize. -- Solution of continuity, the separation of connection, or of connected substances or parts; --
applied, in surgery, to a fracture, laceration, or the like. "As in the natural body a wound, or
solution of continuity, is worse than a
corrupt humor, so in the spiritual." Bacon. --
Standardized solution (Chem.),
a solution which is used as a reagent,
and is of a known and standard strength; specifically, a normal solution, containing
in each cubic centimeter as many milligrams of the element in question as the number representing its atomic weight; thus, a normal solution of silver nitrate would contain 107.7 mgr. of silver in
each cubic centimeter.
Hear it pronounced