3. Principle; an element; — used by the alchemists in speaking of salt, sulphur, and mercury, which they considered as the three principles of all material bodies.
4. (Med.)
Defn: That which is deposited at the bottom of a fluid; sediment.
HYPOSTASIZE
Hy*pos"ta*size, v. t.
Defn: To make into a distinct substance; to conceive or treat as an existing being; to hypostatize. [R.] The pressed Newtonians . . . refused to hypostasize the law of gravitation into an ether. Coleridge.
HYPOSTATIC; HYPOSTATICAL
Hy`po*stat"ic, Hy`po*stat"ic*al, a. Etym: [Gr. hypostatique.]
1. Relating to hypostasis, or substance; hence, constitutive, or elementary. The grand doctrine of the chymists, touching their three hypostatical principles. Boyle.
2. Personal, or distinctly personal; relating to the divine hypostases, or substances. Bp. Pearson.
3. (Med.)
Defn: Depending upon, or due to, deposition or setting; as, hypostatic cognestion, cognestion due to setting of blood by gravitation. Hypostatic union (Theol.), the union of the divine with the human nature of Christ. Tillotson.