Plas"ma (?), n. [See Plasm.]

1. Min.

A variety of quartz, of a color between grass green and leek green, which is found associated with common chalcedony. It was much esteemed by the ancients for making engraved ornaments.

2. Biol.

The viscous material of an animal or vegetable cell, out of which the various tissues are formed by a process of differentiation; protoplasm.

3.

Unorganized material; elementary matter.

4. Med.

A mixture of starch and glycerin, used as a substitute for ointments.

U. S. Disp.

<-- = blood plasma -->

<-- 6. (physics) a state of matter in which charged particles have sufficient energy to move freely, rather than bound in atoms as in ordinary matter; it has some of the properties of a gas, but is a conductor of electricity; plasmas are found naturally in the atmosphere of stars, and can be created in special laboratory apparatus -->

Blood plasma Physiol., the colorless fluid of the blood, in which the red and white blood corpuscles are suspended. -- Muscle plasma Physiol., the fundamental part of muscle fibers, a thick, viscid, albuminous fluid contained within the sarcolemma, which on the death of the muscle coagulates to a semisolid mass.

 

© Webster 1913.