Fluxion

Also, 6 fluxione, -yon. [a. Fr. fluxion, ad. L. fluxiōn-em, f. flux- ppl. stem of fluĕre to flow; see -ION.]

  1.  The action of flowing; a flowing or issuing forth (of water, vapor, etc.). Also, continuous or progressive motion; continual change. Now rare.

1599.  Hakluyt, Voy., II. II. 333. Whirlepooles, and fluxions are caused of such other vehement motions, not only in the middest of the sea, but also in creeks and streights.

1603.  Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 962. It is the smell it selfe and sent of the nose, which by the tract of the foot and the fluxion of the odour comming from the beast.

1606.  J. Davies, Sel. Sec. Husb. &c., Wks. (Grosart), II. 14.

1635.  Swan, Spec. M., v. § 2 (1643), 165. That [water] onely vvhich ariseth from a fountain, or hath some certain beginning of fluxion.

1656.  T. Stanley, Hist. Philos., V. 10. In Sensibles (saith Plato) neither magnitude nor quality is permanent, but in continuall fluxion and mutation. Ibid. (1660), IX. 550/1. A Body consists of one point, the point by fluxion makes a Line, the line by fluxion makes a Superficies, the superficies moved to thickness makes a Body, three waies dimensurable.

1880.  Blackmore, Mary Anerley, I. viii. 92. Their bodies continually going up and down upon perpetual fluxion, they never could live if their minds did the same, like the minds of stationary landsmen.

  fig.  1829.  Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 31. The Catholics know that the fluxion of public opinion is in their favour.

  † b.  = EFFLUVIUM 2 a. Obs.

1603.  Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 725. Those fluxions which rest upon waters, looking-glasses, or any such mirrors by way of repercussion.

1655.  T. Stanley, Hist. Philos., II. (1701), 65/1. Falling Stars are not fluxions of the aether extinguisht in the Air almost as soon as lighted.

1748.  Hartley, Observations on Man, I. iii. 352. The Rays of Light may be considered as a kind of Fluxions in respect of the biggest component Particles of Matter.

  2.  An excessive flow of blood, ‘humour,’ serum, etc., to any organ or part of the body. Also concr., the matter which flows.

1541.  R. Copland, Galyen’s Terapeutyke, 2 B j. Yf the flux or rennynge wyll nat stop with salues, seke the cause of the sayde fluxyon, and take if fyrste away.

c. 1550.  H. Llwyd, The Treasury of Health (1585), A iij. Horsnesse and continuall fluxion of sneuil in old men, do in no means waxe rype.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, II. 559. It is the better for to represse the fluxion of humors into the eies.

1612.  Woodall, The Surgeons Mate, Wks. (1653), 75. Gallae or Galles are cold in the second degree, and dry in the third; they cure fluxions of the gums, help the ulcerations of the mouth, stay the fluxes menstrual, and help the mother falling down, make the hair black, consume proud flesh in wounds and ulcers, and induce a good healing to them.

1746.  Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to W. Montagu, 23 Aug. I had so bad a fluxion on my eyes, I was really afraid of losing them.

1874.  Roosa, Dis. Ear, 75. As Politzer and Schwartze suggest, ‘a fluxion towards the labyrinth with serous exudation in the nerve structure.’

  fig.  1796.  Burney, Metastasio, II. 351. To attempt the cure of the eloquent fluxion to which he is subject.

  3.  = FLUX sb. 1.

1563.  W. Fulke, Meteors (1640), 53 b. The common dew drunke of cattell doth rott them, because the matter is full of viscosity, bringing them to a fluxion.

1599.  A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 217/2. It præventeth also the supperfluous fluxione [of the menstrualles].

1657.  Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 165. This cures eroding fluxions, and the distempers of the Lungs, or at least reduces them to a better state.

1760–72.  trans. Juan & Ulloa’s Voy. (ed. 3), II. 67. In Chili, Baldivia, and Chiloe, the cold was proportionable to the latitudes; and at Lima it occasioned constipations and fluxions, which swept away such numbers that it seemed to resemble a pestilence.

  † 4.  = FUSION. Obs.

1731.  Bailey, Fluxion (among Chymists), signifies the running of Metals or any other Bodies, into a Fluid, by Fire or otherwise.

1848.  in Craig.

  5.  Math. In the Newtonian form of the infinitesimal calculus: ‘The rate or proportion at which a flowing or varying quantity increases its magnitude’ (Hutton, Math. Dict.).

  This is Newton’s own use of the word; but the 18th c. writers on the Newtonian calculus used fluxion for what Newton called the ‘moment’ of a fluent, and modern analysts call the ‘differential.’

  Corresponding fluxions, rates at which two interdependent quantities may change simultaneously. Second fluxion, the rate of change of the fluxion of a variable quantity; the second differential coefficient with respect to the time.

1704.  [see DIFFERENTIAL B 1].

1706.  W. Jones, Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos, 174. Let x be a Ratiuncula, or Fluxion of the Ratio of 1 to 1 + x.

1806.  Hutton, Course Math., II. 287. We may now collect all the rules … for finding the fluxions of all sorts of quantities. Ibid. (1828), II. 323. The fluxion found from a given fluent, is always perfect and complete.

  b.  Hence (the Method or † Doctrine of) Fluxions is used as a name for the Newtonian calculus.

  The direct and inverse method of fluxions are (apart from differences of notation) essentially identical with the differential and the integral calculus, respectively.

1701.  [see DIFFERENTIAL A 3.].

1741.  Watts, Improv. Mind, I. xx. 327. A Penetration into the abstruse Difficulties and Depths of modern Algebra and Fluxions.

1812.  Cresswell, Max. & Min., II. ii. 197. Its [quantity’s] increase and decrease by motion, which is the foundation of the doctrine of Fluxions, is readily conceived in a vague and general manner.

1830.  Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., III. iii. (1851), 271. In the invention of the method of fluxions, or, as it is now more generally called, the differential calculus, has supplied a means of discovery, bearing the same proportion to the methods previously in use, that the steam-engine does to the mechanical powers employed before its invention.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., ix. § 1. 599. At twenty-three he [Newton] facilitated the calculation of planetary movements by his theory of Fluxions.

  ¶ c.  loosely. An infinitesimal quantity.

1846.  De Quincey, Christianity, Wks. XII. 234. The hour-hand of a watch,—who can detect the separate fluxions of its advance?

  6.  Comb.: fluxion-structure (see quot. 1890).

1882.  Geikie, Text-bk. Geol., II. n, iv. 104 This is well shown by what is termed the fluxion-structure. Ibid. (1890), Class-bk. Geol. (ed. 2), 146. Flow-structure, Fluxion-structure—an arrangement of the crystallites, crystals, or particles of a rock in streaky lines, the minuter forms being grouped round the larger, indicative of the internal movement of the mass previous to its consolidation.