a. [ad. med.L. viscerālis (Du Cange) internal, f. viscera: see prec. So OF. visceral (fig.), F. viscéral, Sp. visceral, It. viscerale.]
† 1. a. Affecting the viscera or bowels regarded as the seat of emotion; pertaining to, or touching deeply, inward feelings. Obs.
1575. Fenton, Gold. Epist. (1582), 117. Thys warre is called Viscerall, for that it is bredde and begon in the hearte, and dissolueth and takes ende in the hearte.
1626. T. H[awkins], trans. Caussin’s Holy Court, 288. He is vnited to all men, as oftentymes as they receyue him, by a viscerall transfusion of himselfe, as one should melt one waxe within another.
1627. Donne, Serm. (1640), 285. Christ here sends Paracletum in a more entire and a more internall and more Viscerall sense—a Comforter.
1640. Bp. Reynolds, Passions, xi. 109. Love is of all other the inmost and most viscerall affection; and therefore called by the apostle, ‘Bowels of love.’
† b. fig. Lying in the entrails or inward parts.
1624. Donne, Serm., xvii. (1640), 167. There is the land of Gold, centricall Gold, viscerall Gold, gremiall Gold, Gold in the Matrice and womb of God.
2. Phys. Of disorders or diseases: Affecting the viscera or internal organs.
1794. in Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 500. The Lebanon pool is famous for having wrought many cures … even in visceral obstructions and indigestion.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, II. 919. A spring … much frequented for visceral disorders.
1862. Smiles, Engineers, III. 247. Disease also fell upon him,—first fever, and then visceral derangement.
1876. Bristowe, Th. & Pract. Med. (1878), 288. The visceral lesions and cachexiæ which supervene on ague.
3. Anat. Of or pertaining to, consisting of, situated in or among, the viscera.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxxviii. IV. 62. The bronchiæ … may be considered as consisting in general of … visceral ones which enter the cavity of the body, and are lost amongst the viscera and the caul [etc.].
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxx. (1856), 259. The lost art of petrified visceral monstrosities seen at the medical schools.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, Introd. p. xix. In the sub-kingdom vertebrata … visceral systems exist in specialized and differentiated forms.
1880. Bastian, Brain, 34. Such communicating branches are especially numerous in the course of the visceral nerves.
b. Visceral cavity, that part of an animal body in which the viscera are contained.
1846. Dana, Zooph. (1848), 11. A visceral cavity closed below.
1851. S. P. Woodward, Mollusca, I. 31. Sea-water is admitted to the visceral cavity of many of the mollusks by minute canals.
1868. Duncan, Insect World, Introd. 14. It is the unoccupied portions of the great visceral cavity which serve as conductors to the blood.
4. Pertaining to the viscera of animals used as a means of divination.
1833. Mrs. Browning, Prometh. Bound, Poems 1850, I. 161. I … taught what sign Of visceral lightness, coloured to a shade, May charm the genial gods.
1861. Col. Hawker, in C. E. Byles, Life & Lett. (1905), xvii. 382. I have visceral augury.
5. Anat. a. Visceral layer, a portion of the arachnoid membrane.
1840. G. V. Ellis, Anat., 13. That portion of it … which covers the brain, or the visceral layer, is separated from the brain by a considerable interval.
1875. Sir W. Turner, in Encycl. Brit., I. 865/1. Many anatomists regard the arachnoid as the visceral layer of a serous membrane.
b. Visceral arch, one of a set of parallel ridges in the region of the mouth in the embryonic skull. Visceral cleft, one of the intervals between the visceral arches.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, Introd. p. xlvii. The malleus of Mammalia … being developed out of the proximal elements of the first visceral arch.
1872. Mivart, Elem. Anat., i. (1873), 5. These arches are separated by temporary apertures termed ‘visceral clefts.’
1875. Sir W. Turner, in Encycl. Brit., I. 831/1. Immediately below each maxillary lobe four arches, called branchial or visceral, arise in the ventral aspect of the head.
Hence Viscerally adv. (In quot. fig.)
a. 1636. C. FitzGeffrey, Comp. tow. Captives, iii. (1637), 38. Then shall your compassion extend it selfe more viscerally towards your afflicted brethren.
