DISSOLUTION, noun [Latin] In a general sense, the separation of the parts of a body which, in the natural structure, are united; or the reduction of concrete bodies into their smallest parts, without regard to solidity or fluidity. Thus we speak of the dissolution of salts in water, of metals in nitro-muriatic acid, and of ice or butter by heat; in which cases, the dissolution is effected by a menstruum or particular agent. We speak so of the dissolution of flesh or animal bodies, when the parts separate by putrefaction. dissolution then is,

1. The act of liquefying or changing from a solid to a fluid state by heat; a melting; a thawing; as the dissolution of snow and ice, which converts them into water.

2. The reduction of a body into its smallest parts, or into very minute parts, by a dissolvent or menstruum, as of a metal by nitro-muricatic acid, or of slats in water.

3. The separation of the parts of a body by putrefaction, or the analysis of the natural structure of mixed bodies, as of animal or vegetable substances; decomposition.

4. The substance formed by dissolving a body in a menstruum. [This is now called a solution.]

5. Death; the separation of the soul and body.

6. Destruction; the separation of the parts which compose a connected system, or body; as the dissolution of the world, or of nature; the dissolution of government.

7. The breaking up of an assembly, or the putting an end to its existence.

DISSOLUTION is the civil death of parliament.

8. Looseness of manners; dissipation. In this latter sense the word is obsolete, dissoluteness being substituted.

9. dissolution of the blood, in medicine, that state of the blood, in which it does not readily coagulate, no its cooling out of the body, as in malignant fevers.