DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan
Men·stru·um n.; pl. E. Menstruums L. Menstrua Any substance which dissolves a solid body; a solvent.
The proper menstruum to dissolve metal. --Bacon.
All liquors are called menstruums which are used as dissolvents, or to extract the virtues of ingredients by infusion or decoction. --Quincy.
Note: ☞ The use is supposed to have originated in some notion of the old chemists about the influence of the moon in the preparation of dissolvents.
◄ ►
menstruum
n 1: (archaic) a solvent
2: the monthly discharge of blood from the uterus of
nonpregnant women from puberty to menopause; "the women
were sickly and subject to excessive menstruation"; "a
woman does not take the gout unless her menses be
stopped"--Hippocrates; "the semen begins to appear in
males and to be emitted at the same time of life that the
catamenia begin to flow in females"--Aristotle [syn: menstruation,
menses, catamenia, period, flow]
[also: menstrua (pl)]