piaster 
3. Calcined gypsum or calcium sulphate, used, 
when mixed with water, for finishing walls, for 
molds, ornaments, easts, luting, cement, etc. 
Plaster used as a ground for painting in distemper IB un- 
burned, and of two kinds, one coarse and one of a finer 
quality, Both are made from white alabaster, but tbe lat- 
ter, which is used also as u ground for gilding, and for 
working ornaments in relief, is more carefully prepared 
than the former. The plaster used for taking costs from 
life or from statues is always burned. 
They suppose that this ryuer [BahuanJ hathe made It 
selfe Hwaye vnder the grounde by sume passages of playt- 
ttr or saltc earthe. Peter Martyr, tr. In First Books on 
[America (ed. ArberX p. 172. 
Aconite plaster, aconite-root, alcohol, and resin plaster. 
Adhesive plaster. Same unretin plaster. Ammoniac 
plaster, ammoniac and diluted acetic acid. Ammoniac 
plaster with mercury, ammoniac, mercury, olive-oil, 
sublimed sulphur, diluted acetic acid, and lead-plaster. 
Antimonial plaster, double tartrate of antimony and 
potassium anil Hurgundypitch. Arnica plaster, extract 
of arnica-root and resin plaster. Aromatic plaster. 
Same asspice-jAwter. Asafetidaplaster.asafettda, lead- 
plaster, galbanum, yellow wax, and alcohol. Belladon- 
na plaster, belladonna-root, alcohol, and resin plaster. 
Blistering plaster. Same as cantharidesplaster. Brown 
soap plaster. Same as soap-cerate planter. Burgundy- 
pitch plaster. Burgundy pitch and yellow wax. Cal- 
cined plaster. Same as plaster of Paris, Canada- 
pitch plaster, Canada pltchand yellow wax. Canthar- 
ides plaster, cantharides, yellow wax, resin, and lard. 
Also called cantharides cerate, blistering plaster, vfncatiny 
platter. Capsicum plaster, resin plaster and oleoresin 
of capsicum. Carbonate-of-lead plaster, lead carbo- 
nate, olive-oil, yellow wax, lead-plaster, and Florentine 
orris. Chalybeate plaster. Same as iron plaster. 
Court plaster, see court plaster. Diachylon plas- 
ter. Same & lead-planter. Fibrous plaster, plaster of 
Paris into which fibrous material of some kind is worked 
to give it coherence : used for patterns in low relief for 
ceilings, walls, and the like. Oalbanum plaster, gal- 
banum, turpentine, Burgundy pitch, and lead-plaster ; or 
galbanum, ammoniac, yellow wax, and lead-piaster. 
Hemlock-pitch plaster. Same as Canada-pitch plas- 
ter. lodide-of-lead plaster, lead iodide, soap plaster, 
and resin plaster; or lead iodide, lead-plaster, and resin. 
Iron plaster, oxid of iron, Canada turpentine, Bur- 
gundy pitch, and lead-plaster. Also called chalyltrati' plas- 
ter, strengthening plaster. Isinglass plaster, isinglass. 
alcohol, glycerin, and tincture of benzoin. Also called 
court-plaster. Lath and plaster. See lathi. Lead 
plaster. See lead-plaster. Litharge plaster. Same 
as lead-planter. Logan's plaster, litharge, lead carbo- 
nate, Castile soap, butter, oTive-oil, and mastic. Mahy's 
plaster. Same as carbonate-of-lead plaster. Mercurial 
plaster, mercury, ollve-oll, resin, and lead-plaster. 
Miraculous plaster, red oxid of lead, olive-oil, cam- 
phor, and alum. Opium plaster. See opium-plaster. 
Pitch-plaster, Burgundy pitch, frankincense, resin, 
yellow wax, oil of nutmeg, and olive-oil. Pitch-plas- 
ter with cantharides, Burgundy pitch and cerate or 
piaster of cantharides ; or cautharides, oil of nutmeg, yel- 
low wax, resin, soap plaster, and resin plaster. Also called 
vrarin planter. Plaster cast, a reproduction of an ob- 
ject made by pouring plaster of Paris mixed with water 
into a mold which has been made from the object to be 
copied. Many molds are needed for a complicated figure, 
and the parts separately cast are united, showing raised 
seams where they are put together. Plaster jacket, a 
bandage surrounding the trunk, made stiff with gypsum, 
used in caries of the vertebrae. Plaster mull, a plaster 
made by coating a thin sheet of gutta-percha, backed with 
muslin, with the substance that is to be applied to the 
skin. Plaster of Paris, (a) Native gypsum : so called 
because found iu large quantities in the Tertiary of the 
Paris basin. See gypsum. (6) Calcined gypsum that is, 
gypsum from which the water has been driven ofj by 
heat : used in building and in making casts of busts and 
statues, etc. When diluted with water into a thin paste, 
plaster of I'aris sets rapidly, and at the Instant of setting 
expands or increases in bulk; hence this material be- 
comes valuable for filling cavities, etc., where other earths 
would shrink. Plaster process, a method of making 
stereotype plates for priming by the use of plaster. A 
mold of the type page Is made by pouring over it liquid 
plaster of Paris ; this mold, when baked entirely dry, 
is filled with melted type-metal. Workshop Receipts, 4th 
ser. , p. 217. Poor man's plaster, a plaster composed of 
tar, resin, and yellow wax. Dunglison. Porous plas- 
ter, a spread plaster having numerous small holes to pre- 
vent wrinkling and to i-ender it more pliable. Rade- 
macher's plaster, red lead, olive-oil, amber, camphor, 
and alum. Resin plaster, resin, lead-plaster, and yel- 
lo-.v wax or hard soap. Also called adhesive plaster, stick- 
ing plaster. Soap-cerate plaster, curd soap, yellow 
wax, olive -oil, oxid of lead, and vinegar. Soap plaster, 
soap and leiul-plaster, with or without resin. Spice plas- 
ter, yellow wax, suet, turpentine, oil of nutmeg, oliba. 
num. benzoin, oil of peppermint, and oil of cloves. Also 
called aromatic plaster, stomach-plaster. Sticking plas- 
ter. Same as rexin planter. Stomach-plaster. Same 
as spice plaster. Stramonium plaster, extract of stra- 
monium, elemi, and galbanum plaster. Strengthening 
plaster. Same as iron plaster. Thapsia plaster, yel- 
low wax, Bui-gundy pitch, resin, terebinthina cocta, Ven- 
ice turpentine, glycerin, and thapsia resin. Vesicating 
plaster. Same as cantharides plaster. Vigo plaster, 
lead-plaster, yellow wax, resin, olibanum, ammoniac, lull-I- 
lium, myrrh, saffron, mercury, turpentine, liquid storax, 
and oil of lavender. Warm (or warming) plaster. 
Same as pitch-plaster irith cantharides. Zinc plaster, 
zinc sulphate and Castile soap. 
plaster (plas'ter), r. t. [Formerly also plaister, 
l>ln//strr; < ME. plastren. pliii/sti'mi, playstren 
= I), pleisteren = MLG. plasteren = G. pjluxfcni 
= Sw. filaxtrii = Dan. piastre; from the noun: 
MjrfMfer. ii. Cf. ri]>ltMter, r.] 1. To apply 
a medicative plaster to; cover with a plaster: 
as, to plaster a wound. 
4535 
And In- he bathed In that blode baptised, as it were. 
And thanne plattred with penaunce audpassioun of that 
babl, 
Heshulde itonde and steppe. Piers Plouman(B), xvIL 96. 
2. To cover or overlay with plaster, as the walls 
of a house, partitions, etc. 
The east side [of the aqueduct] is plaiUred with a very 
strong cement, probably to prevent any damage from the 
sands that might be drove against it 
I'Mocke, Description of the East, II. 1. GO. 
The houses [at Rome] are of stone, but plastered as at 
Vienna. Euaare, Italy, II. 1. 
3. To bedaub or besmear: as, to plaster the 
face with powder. [Colloq.] 4. To fill or 
cover over with or as with plaster; hide; gloss: 
with up. 
But see here the conueyance of these splrltuall gentle- 
men in playsteryng vp their unsauery sorceries. 
/;/. Bale, English Votaries, i. 
And suck out clammy dews from herbs and flowers. 
To smear the chinks, and platter up the pores. 
Additon, tr. of Virgil's Oeorglcs, Iv. 
5. To treat with plaster; add gypsum to: as, to 
plaster vines by dusting them with gypsum in 
order to prevent rot or mildew of the berries ; to 
plaster wines by adding gypsum in order to neu- 
tralize acid or produce other fancied benefits. 
plasterbill (plas'ter-bil), n. The surf-scoter 
or surf -duck, (Edemia (Pelionetta) perspicillata : 
so called from a peculiarity of the bill. G. Turn- 
bull, 1888. See cut under surf-duck. [Massa- 
chusetts.] 
plaster-clovert (plas'ter-klo'ver), . The sweet 
clover, Melilotus officinnlis: so called from its 
use in ointments. 
plasterer (plas'ter-er), n, [= D. pleisteraar = 
G. pflasterer, pJUisterer; us plaster, r., + -w 1 .] 
One who plasters walls; also, one who makes 
plaster ornaments. 
plastering (plas'ter-ing), n. [< ME. plasteryng, 
playsteryng ; verbal n. of planter, r.] 1. The 
act or operation of overlaying with plaster. 
2. The plaster-work of a building; a covering 
of 'plaster. 3. The treatment of wines by the 
addition of gypsum or plaster of Paris. See 
plaster, ., 5. 
plastering-machine (plas'ter-ing-ma-shen*), 
n. A machine designed for use in spreading 
plaster in forming interior walls and ceilings. 
Attempts to construct a practical machine of this kind, 
adapted to general use, have not yet succeeded, and the 
ancient method of plastering with hand-trowels is still 
universal. 
plaster-mill (plas'ter-mil), n. 1. A machine 
consisting of a roller or a set of rollers for 
grinding lime or gypsum to powder. 2. A 
mortar-mill. 
plaster-stone (plta'tewton), . Gypsum, or a 
species of gypsum. 
plastery (plas'ter-i), a. [< plaster + -yi.] Re- 
sembling plaster; containing plaster. 
St. Peter's disappoints me ; the stone of which it is made 
is a poor plastery material ; and indeed Rome in general 
might be called a rubbishy place. .1. //. dough. 
plastic (plas'tik), a. [= F. plastiqut = Sp. 
pldstico = Pg. It. plastico (cf. D. G. plastisch 
= Sw. Dan. plastisk), < L. plasticitx, < dr. Tr'/aa- 
rinof, of or belonging to molding or modeling, 
< irXaorof , verbal adj. of x/.aaaeiv, mold or form 
in clay, wax, etc. Cf. plaster.'] 1. Capable of 
molding or of giving form or fashion to a mass 
of matter ; having power to mold. 
Benign Creator, let thy plastic Hand 
Dispose its own Effect. Prior, Solomon, ill. 
Plastic Nature working to this end. 
Pope, Essay on Man, 111. 9. 
The One Spirit's plastic stress 
Sweeps through the dull dense world. 
Shelley, Adonais, xlill. 
2. Capable of being modeled or molded into 
various forms, as plaster, clay, etc.; hence, 
capable of change or modification ; capable of 
receiving a new bent or direction: as, the mind 
is plastic in youth. 
Stuff at hand, plastic as they could wish. 
Wordsworth, French Revolution. 
3. Pertaining to or connected with modeling 
or molding ; produced by or characteristic of 
modeling or molding: as, the plastic art (that is, 
sculpture iu the widest sense, as distinguished 
from painting and the graphic arts). 
Pictorial rather than plattit In style, both in action and 
in the treatment of draperies. 
C. C. Perkins, Italian Sculpture, p. 15i 
4. In 6('o?., specifically, plasmic Plastic bron- 
chitis, pseudomembranous bronchitis Plastic Clay, 
clay suitable for making pottery or bricks: specifically, a 
division of the Eocene in England, especially in the Lon- 
don basin and on the Isle nf Wight, where it is character- 
istically developed. The Plastic clay series was so named 
by T. Webster, in imitation of the name given by Cuvler 
plastral 
and Brongnlart (Argile plattiiritc) to 3 division of the se- 
ries In the I'aris basin. The beds thus named by Welmtcr 
were later designated by Prestwich as the Woolwich and 
Reading series. Part of the series is very fosslliferous ; 
among the fossils is a bird as large as the tUnornis of New 
Zealand. Plastic crystal See crystal. Plastic force, 
the sum total of agencies producing growth and organi- 
zation in living bodies. Plastic gum, gutta-percha. 
Plastic imagination, the productive or creative imagi- 
nation. Plastic medium, something intermediate be- 
tween soul and body, assumed to account for their action 
one upon the other. Plastic nature. See nature. 
Plastic operations, plastic surgery, operations which 
have for their object the restoring of lost parts, as when 
the skin of the cheeks U used to make a new nose (rhlno- 
plasty). Plastic solid. See solid. 
plasticalt (plas'ti-kal), a. [< plastic + -/.] 
Same as plastic. IJr. H. More, Philosophical 
Writings, Pref. Gen., p. xvi. 
plastically (plas'ti-kal-i), adr. In a plastic 
manner; by molding or modeling, as a plastic 
substance. 
plasticity (plas-tis'i-ti), . [= F. plasticitc = 
Sp. plagticidad = Pg. plasticiitade ; as plastic + 
-tfy.J The property of being plastic, (a) The 
property of giving form or shape to matter. 
To show further that this protoplasm possesses the ne- 
cessary properties of a normal protoplasm, it will be neces- 
sary to examine . . . what these properties are. They 
are two in number, the capacity for life and plasticity. 
II. Dnanmond, Natural Law in the Spiritual Win Id, p. 299. 
(6) Capability of being molded, formed, or modeled. 
The race must at a certain time have a definite amount 
of plasticity that is, a definite power of adapting itself 
to altered circumstances by changing in accordance with 
them. IF. K. Clifford, Lectures, I. 102. 
Some natures are distinguished by pianticity or the pow- 
er of acquisition, and therefore realise more closely the 
saying that man Is a bundle of habits. 
A. Bain, Emotions and Will, p. 473. 
plastid (plas'tid), . and a. [< NL. plaslidiiim, 
q. v.] I. n. 1. A unicellular organism; a sim- 
ple unit of aggregation of the first order, as an 
individual protozoan, or a cell considered with 
reference to its developmental or evolutionary 
potentiality. The word has no exact zoological signifi- 
cation. Haeckel used it for any elementary organism, as 
a cell or cytode. 
If we reduce organized beings to their ultimate organ- 
Isms cells or plastids. 
Datcson, Origin of the World, p. 377. 
2. In bot., one of the variously shaped pi-oteid 
bodies, such as ehlorophyl-gramiles, leucoplas- 
tids, chromoplastids, etc., which may be clearly 
differentiated iu the protoplasm of active cells. 
They have substantially the same chemical and, with the 
exception of color, the same physical properties as proto- 
plasm. They arc regarded as being the centers of chemi- 
cal activity In cells. 
II. a. Having the character or quality of a 
plastid; plastic or plasmic. 
plastidium (plas-tid'i-um), . ; f].plastidia (-&). 
[NL., < Gr. ir/aorof-, verbal adj. of n^aaaetv, 
mold, form (see plastic), + dim. -tdiov."] Same 
as plastid. 
Plastidozoa (plas'ti-do-zo'ji), . pi. [NL., < 
plastid(iu 
Protozoa. 
plastidular (plas-tid'u-ljir), a. [< plastidiilc + 
-<ir 3 .] Of or pertaining to plastidules. 
plastidule (plas'ti-dul), n. [< plastid + -idr.] 
A molecule of protoplasm; chemically, the 
smallest mass of protoplasm which can exist as 
such, or the very complex and highly unstable 
molecule of the chemical substance protein, 
when invested with vital activities. 
plastilina (plas-ti-15'na), n. [< plmt(ic) + 
-U + -iH.] A modeliug-K-lay so compounded as 
to remain moist for a considerable time, and 
thus dispense with frequent wettingduring the 
progress of the work. 
plastin (plas'tin), . [< Gr. irZaar6f, verbal adj. 
of vUooeiv, form, mold, + -in 2 .] In Wo/., an 
element in the chemical composition of the 
cell-nucleus: according to Swartz, who calls it 
also cytoplastin, a viscous extensible mass which 
resists pepsin- and trypsin-digestion. 
Carnoy . . . believes that the single, greatly coiled chro- 
matin thread present in the nucleus In Arthropoda has a 
"plastin envelope, "consisting of nuclein substances. . . . 
Besides the "nuclein" discovered by Miescher, which 
forms an essential part of the mass of the nucleus, Reinke 
and Rodewald have found "plastin," and Kossel " histon " 
and "adenin." 
Quart. Jour. Micros. Sci., XXX. ii. 186, 160. 
plastography fplas-tog'ra-fi), n. [< Gr. ir^od- 
rof, verbal adj. of irt.&oottv, ,form, mold, + -'/pa- 
yia, < ypaifeiv, write.] Imitation of handwrit- 
ing; forgery. 
plastra, . Plural of plaxtnnn. 
plastral (plas'tral), o. [< iil<istr-<iii + -til.] In 
hci-jiet., of or pertaining to the plastron; enter- 
ing into the formation of the under shell: as, 
plitstral bones ; jilm-tml scutes or sutures. 
--, . . ., 
plastid(ium) + Gr. fipoi', animal.] Same as 
