[a. Gr. τάξις arrangement, order, n. of action from τάσσειν to arrange.]
1. Surg. A manipulative operation employed for replacing parts which have quitted their natural situation, reducing hernia, etc.
1758. J. S., Le Dran’s Observ. Surg. (1771), 198. The Reduction was attempted in vain, by the Operation called the Taxis.
1800. Med. Jrnl., IV. 38. In about an hour after, the reduction was compleated, by again having recourse to the inverted position and the taxis.
1887. D. Maguire, Massage, iii. (ed. 4), 43. The taxis which surgeons use on ruptures, is but … a methodical pressure used by the hand on a ruptured tumour for reducing it.
† 2. Arch. Structural adaptation of elements; the adaptation of parts to the end for which a building is erected; ordonnance. Obs.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Taxis..., in the ancient architecture, signifies the same with Ordonnance in the new, and is described by Vitruvius to be that which gives every part of a building its just dimensions, with regard to its use.
3. Anc. Gr. Hist. A company of soldiers, esp. foot-soldiers; a division of troops varying in size in different military organizations, and accordingly answering to a modern company, battalion, regiment, or brigade; in Athens, the quota of foot-soldiers supplied by each of the ten local tribes or Phylæ.
1850. Grote, Greece, II. lvi. VII. 108. Ench taxis or company,… had its own taxiarch. Ibid. (1856), II. xcii. XII. 80. The Macedonian Phalanx…. The largest division of it which we find mentioned … is called a Taxis. How many of these Taxeis there were in all, we do not know.
4. Philol. Order or arrangement of words.
1885. Amer. Jrnl. Philol., VI. 361. The double taxis (grammatical and logical) of the Latin.
5. Nat. Hist. Classification, taxonomy.
1891. in Cent. Dict.
6. Biol. The reaction of a free organism to external stimulus by movement in a particular direction.
1904. Science, 14 Oct., 487. The mechanical interpretations of the tropisms and taxes as held by Loeb, Bethe and Uexkull.
1908. Driesch, Sc. & Philos. Organism, II. 9. In the simple free directive movement or ‘taxis’ it is the typical relation between the direction of the stimulus and the direction of the effect, with regard to the main axis or the plane of symmetry of the organism, which separates this type of motion from others. Ibid., 13. ‘Taxis’ signifies the specific orientation of a specific axis of the organism with regard to the direction of any directed agent of the medium.
