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Thorax   Listen
noun
Thorax  n.  
1.
(Anat.) The part of the trunk between the neck and the abdomen, containing that part of the body cavity the walls of which are supported by the dorsal vertebrae, the ribs, and the sternum, and which the heart and lungs are situated; the chest. Note: In mammals the thoracic cavity is completely separated from the abdominal by the diaphragm, but in birds and many reptiles the separation is incomplete, while in other reptiles, and in amphibians and fishes, there is no marked separation and no true thorax.
2.
(Zool.)
(a)
The middle region of the body of an insect, or that region which bears the legs and wings. It is composed of three united somites, each of which is composed of several distinct parts.
(b)
The second, or middle, region of the body of a crustacean, arachnid, or other articulate animal. In the case of decapod Crustacea, some writers include under the term thorax only the three segments bearing the maxillipeds; others include also the five segments bearing the legs.
3.
(Antiq.) A breastplate, cuirass, or corselet; especially, the breastplate worn by the ancient Greeks.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Thorax" Quotes from Famous Books



... which this is provided is the "vagus" nerve. This nerve passes out of the cerebral region as a portion of the voluntary system, and through it we control the vocal organs; then it passes onwards to the thorax sending out branches to the heart and lungs; and finally, passing through the diaphragm, it loses the outer coating which distinguishes the nerves of the voluntary system and becomes identified with those of the sympathetic system, so forming a connecting link ...
— The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science • Thomas Troward

... is of a pitchy brown, beneath it is yellowish and hairy; the margin of the thorax is yellowish, its disk has many short rust-coloured hairs, the elytra have 9 longitudinal impressed lines, the spaces between transversely striolated ...
— Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1. • J Lort Stokes

... remember, John, that the Fourth is the day when your patriotic voice should climb out of your thorax and make the welkin ring, but it isn't really necessary to get up a row between a stick of dynamite and a keg of giant powder to prove that you ...
— Skiddoo! • Hugh McHugh

... look at them more narrowly, Arthur placed one on its back, when it sprang up with a curious click and pitched again on its feet. On examining it we found that this was produced by the strong spine placed beneath the thorax, fitting into a small cavity on the upper part of the abdomen. It brings this over its head, and striking the ground with great force, can thus regain its natural position. The creature was about an inch and a half long, and of a brown colour. The light proceeded from a smooth, yellow, semi-transparent ...
— On the Banks of the Amazon • W.H.G. Kingston

... think that this electric light will become a vacuum tube for photographing, from the stomach, any part of the abdomen or thorax?" ...
— Little Masterpieces of Science: - Invention and Discovery • Various

... resisted as a callous body, and could not be bruised. This hardness was observed all along the vertebrae of the neck, but lessened by degrees, and was not near so considerable in the vertebrae of the thorax. Though the patient was but nine and thirty years old, the cartilages of the sternum were ossified, and required as much labour to cut them asunder as the ribs; like these they were spungy, but somewhat whiter. The lungs and heart were sound. ...
— An Essay on the Shaking Palsy • James Parkinson

... instinctively. On mentioning the subject to my son George, who is a mathematician and knows something about magnetism, he suggested making a very thin needle into a magnet; then breaking it into very short pieces, which would still be magnetic, and fastening one of these pieces with some cement on the thorax of the insect to ...
— More Letters of Charles Darwin - Volume I (of II) • Charles Darwin

... rather bad place for any prolonged experiment, for the Bee is constantly brushing her belly to detach the pollen and is sure to rub it off sooner or later. I therefore make another one, dropping the sticky chalk right in the middle of the thorax, between ...
— The Mason-bees • J. Henri Fabre

... perches, one of which weighed two pounds. The purple ant of the east coast has disappeared, and a similar one with brick-coloured head and thorax, but by no means so voracious, has ...
— Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia • Ludwig Leichhardt

... artificial breathing, for the purpose of ejecting the supposed heavy gas, and filling my lungs with pure air. This was done by contracting the chest on every side to its smallest possible dimensions, and at the same time throwing out the air violently and from the bottom of the thorax, as if under the operation of an emetic; then alternating by opening the chest to its greatest capacity, and drawing in, by successive inhalations, all the fresh air possible, and pressing it down to the lowest depths of the lungs. This process at first ...
— Theory of Circulation by Respiration - Synopsis of its Principles and History • Emma Willard

... prevent organismal contamination of the serum or of the apparatus by means of which it is injected. Syringes are so made that they can be sterilised by boiling. The best situations for injection are under the skin of the abdomen, the thorax, or the buttock, and the skin should be purified at the seat of puncture. If the bulk of the full dose is large, it should be divided and injected into different parts of the body, not more than 20 c.c. being injected at one place. The serum may be ...
— Manual of Surgery - Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. • Alexis Thomson and Alexander Miles

... One is by means of the rising and falling of the ribs. This is called "the costal method." The other is by the contraction and distention of the midriff or diaphragm. The diaphragm is the movable floor to the thorax or box that encloses the lungs. This is called "the diaphragmatic method." Now, since God has furnished us with both methods, He evidently intended that we should use both, as we use our two eyes ...
— The Young Priest's Keepsake • Michael Phelan

... Bruchus begins to emerge, I notice a little Chalcidian, the protector of our peas. In my rearing-cages it issues under my eyes in abundance from the peas infested by the grub of the weevil. The female has a reddish head and thorax; the abdomen is black, with a long augur-like oviscapt. The male, a little smaller, is black. Both sexes have reddish ...
— A Book of Exposition • Homer Heath Nugent

... believe holds good. To give an instance of this law of compensation,—those species of Carnivora which have the canine teeth greatly developed have certain molar teeth deficient; or again, in that division of the Crustaceans in which the tail is much developed, the thorax is little so, and the converse. The points of difference between different races is often strikingly analogous to that between species of the same genus: trifling spots or marks of colour{261} (as the bars on pigeons' wings) are often ...
— The Foundations of the Origin of Species - Two Essays written in 1842 and 1844 • Charles Darwin

... much sense as well as muscle, and does not risk imprisonment in what must prove a tomb by a total and unnecessary disappearance within the bottle. Presently he backs out, brushes the pollen from his head and thorax into his baskets, and is off to fertilize an older, stigmatic flower with the few grains of quickening dust that must ...
— Wild Flowers, An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and - Their Insect Visitors - - Title: Nature's Garden • Neltje Blanchan



Words linked to "Thorax" :   female chest, body, breastbone, pecs, body part, prothorax, insect, trunk, male chest, pectoral, area of cardiac dullness, pectoral muscle, arthropod, vena thoracica, chest cavity, bust, gall bladder, craniate, rib cage, sternum, gallbladder, torso, thoracic vein, pectoralis, breast, musculus pectoralis, thoracic cavity, pectus



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