a. [f. prec.]
1. Having the form or function of a valve; composed or consisting of valves. Chiefly Anat. and Bot.
(a) 1797. M. Baillie, Morb. Anat. (1807), 32. The valvular apparatus between the auricles and ventricles is also occasionally thickened. Ibid., 104. The œsophagus necessarily acquired a valvular communication with it.
1843. J. J. Wilkinson, trans. Swedenborg’s Anim. Kingd., I. ii. 68. Among these glands … we observe a great number of transparent vessels, with valvular divisions.
1878. T. Bryant, Pract. Surg., I. 25. It may appear as a direct or as a valvular opening, depressed, or raised.
(b.) 1829. Lindley, Synops. Brit. Bot., 54. Sepals 4–5, with a valvular æstivation. Ibid. (1830), Nat. Syst. Bot., 141. The calyx is valvular, and the petals only 2.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 298. Ovary superior. Capsule valvular.
(c) 1876. J. J. Wilkinson, Hum. Sci. & Div. Rev., 67. The gates of science are valvular, and open from above downwards, but cannot be opened from below upwards.
2. Furnished with a valve or valves.
1808. Barclay, Muscular Motions, 233. Valvular veins, when divided across, require a ligature only at the orifice which points towards the heart.
3. Of or pertaining to a valve or valves.
1866. A. Flint, Princ. Med., iii. 308. The structural lesions relate, in the first place, to the valves and orifices of the heart. These are known commonly as valvular lesions.
1876. Bristowe, Th. & Pract. Med., 492. Valvular defects may be of two kinds; they may be obstructive,… or such as admit of regurgitation.
1881. Med. Temp. Jrnl., XLVIII. 209. Valvular disease of the heart.
