a. and sb. Also 8–9 -ent. [a. Fr. exhalant, ad. L. exhālant-em, f. exhālāre to EXHALE.]
A. adj.
1. That exhales, exhaling.
1811. Edin. Rev., XIX. 52. Carbonic acid … is … given out directly by the exhalent vessels of the lungs.
1854. Woodward, Mollusca, II. 243. The exhalent siphon [in Bivalves] has but a single row of tentacles.
1883. C. F. Holder, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 187/2. Their orifices so arranged that the inhalent are upon the outside of the cylinder, and the exhalent upon the inner side.
2. Exhalant (artery, vessel, etc.): that transfuses or conveys (blood, etc.) in minute quantities.
1771. T. Percival, Ess. Med. & Experim. (1777), I. 253. The lymph which is thrown out, from the exhalant arteries, into the intestines.
1782. A. Monro, Anat., 35. These exhalent arteries must have corresponding absorbent veins.
1830. R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 181. Exhalent arterioles opening at the surface of the peritoneum.
1847. Youatt, Horse, xii. 252. Increased action of the exhalent vessels.
B. sb. An exhalant vessel or organ. Obs.
1796. Mitchill, in Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 200, note. Its odour resides in the cuticular exhalants.
1805. W. Saunders, Min. Waters, 463. In fever … the exhalents on the surface of the body will not admit of a free passage to the perspirable fluid.
1820. E. P. Luscombe, Health of Soldiers, 46. The Sun’s rays, by which the exhalants on the surface of the body are kept in a state of high excitement.
a. 1841. Sir A. Cooper, in T. J. Graham, Dom. Med. (1844), 407. Dropsy … arises from an increased action of the exhalents.
attrib. 1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 605/1. The important exhalent function of the skin is annihilated.
