CONTRACTILITY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Contractility

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noun

Contractility n.

The quality or property by which bodies shrink or contract.

(Physiol.) The power possessed by the fibers of living muscle of contracting or shortening. Note: When subject to the will, as in the muscles of locomotion, such power is called voluntary contractility; when not controlled by the will, as in the muscles of the heart, it is involuntary contractility.

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Etymology of 'Contractility'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Contractility" Quotes from Famous Books

... on a couch slung from the roof of a saloon carriage, so as to avoid any jolt or jar, since the slightest movement caused much suffering. Two days after her arrival my friend Dr. Buzzard saw her with me, and, after a careful and prolonged electrical examination, came to the conclusion that contractility existed in all the affected muscles, and that the paralysis was purely functional. I could find no evidence in the pelvis of the abscess, the uterus being perfectly mobile, and apparently healthy. After a few days' rest the treatment was commenced on October 16, the patient being isolated in ...

— Fat and Blood - An Essay on the Treatment of Certain Forms of Neurasthenia and Hysteria • S. Weir Mitchell

Words linked to "Contractility" : astringency, ability, contractile