repr. Gr. στατό-ς standing, used (mainly as virtual combining form of STATIC, STATICS) in scientific words, chiefly Biol., as Statoblast, a reproductive gemmule developed in some Polyzoa and Sponges and liberated after the death of the parent organism; hence Statoblastic a. Statocyst, -cyte, each of the cells or cysts containing statoliths. Statogenesis, Statogeny, the (theoretical) origin of organic structures from static conditions (opposed to KINETOGENESIS); hence Statogenetic a., Statogenetically adv. Statolith, a calcareous body found in some locomotor invertebrates, and supposed to be a means of orientation; hence applied to a starch-grain found in the cell-sap of some plant-cells (see quots.). Statometer, an instrument for measuring the degree of exophthalmos (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1898). Statoplast (see quot.). Statorhabd [Gr. ῥάβδος rod] = TENTACULOCYST. Statoscope, a form of aneroid barometer adapted for recording minute variations of atmospheric pressure. Statosphere, Statospore (see quots.).
1855. Allman, in Rep. Brit. Assoc., II. 118. To the bodies in question, the author proposed to give the name of *statoblasts.
1882. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., vi. 327. Statoblasts of Spongilla.
1898. Syd. Soc. Lex., *Statoblastic.
1904. Darwin, in Nature, 8 Sept., 468/1. In the Crustacean Palæmon the sense of verticality depends on the pressure of heavy bodies on the inside of cavities now known as *statocysts, and formerly believed to be organs of hearing.
1900. E. A. Minchin, in Ray Lankester’s Treat. Zool., II. Sponges, 60. Gemmule cells or *statocytes, such as compose the gemmule in Spongilla.
1894. E. D. Cope, in Amer. Naturalist, XXVIII. 213. *Statogenesis is work done in the construction of tissues like those of the parent and without interference.
1893. J. A. Ryder, in Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., XXXI. 198. In so far [as] the figure of a developing being is disturbed or modified by statical agencies its figure may be said to be subject to *statogenetic influences. Ibid., 194. Any formal modification thus caused and maintained would be developed *statogenetically. Ibid. This general term ergogeny, will include not only kinetogeny, but also its antithesis, *statogeny.
1903. F. Darwin, in Nature, 16 April, 571/2. The *Statolith Theory of Geotropism. Ibid. (1904), 8 Sept., 468/2, note. I would suggest the word *statoplast in place of the cumbersome expression movable starch-grains.
1910. Encycl. Brit., XIV. 143/2. In the Trachylinæ the simplest condition of the otocyst is a freely projecting club, a so-called *statorhabd.
1908. Daily Chron., 3 Feb., 6/3. We smashed all our instruments, the first crash quite settling the *statoscope.
1898. Syd. Soc. Lex., *Statosphere, the envelope of the statoblast of fresh water Sponges and Bryozoans. *Statospore, a resting spore, or hypnospore.
