2. Produced by the organs; as, organic pleasure. [R.]
3. Instrumental; acting as instruments of nature or of art to
a certain destined function or end. [R.]
Those organic arts which enable men to discourse and
write perspicuously. --Milton.
4. Forming a whole composed of organs. Hence: Of or
pertaining to a system of organs; inherent in, or
resulting from, a certain organization; as, an organic
government; his love of truth was not inculcated, but
organic.
5. Pertaining to, or denoting, any one of the large series of
substances which, in nature or origin, are connected with
vital processes, and include many substances of artificial
production which may or may not occur in animals or
plants; -- contrasted with {inorganic}.
Note: The principles of organic and inorganic chemistry are
identical; but the enormous number and the completeness
of related series of organic compounds, together with
their remarkable facility of exchange and substitution,
offer an illustration of chemical reaction and homology
not to be paralleled in inorganic chemistry.
{Organic analysis} (Chem.), the analysis of organic
compounds, concerned chiefly with the determination of
carbon as carbon dioxide, hydrogen as water, oxygen as the
difference between the sum of the others and 100 per cent,
and nitrogen as free nitrogen, ammonia, or nitric oxide;
-- formerly called ultimate analysis, in distinction from
proximate analysis.
{Organic chemistry}. See under {Chemistry}.
{Organic compounds}. (Chem.) See {Carbon compounds}, under
{Carbon}.
{Organic description of a curve} (Geom.), the description of
a curve on a plane by means of instruments. --Brande & C.
{Organic disease} (Med.), a disease attended with morbid
changes in the structure of the organs of the body or in
the composition of its fluids; -- opposed to {functional
disease}.
{Organic electricity}. See under {Electricity}.
{Organic} {law or laws}, a law or system of laws, or
declaration of principles fundamental to the existence and
organization of a political or other association; a
constitution.
{Organic stricture} (Med.), a contraction of one of the
natural passages of the body produced by structural
changes in its walls, as distinguished from a spasmodic
stricture, which is due to muscular contraction.