proximate principle

English edit

Noun edit

proximate principle (plural proximate principles)

  1. (biochemistry, archaic) Any of a class of substances found ready-formed in animal and vegetable tissues, and separable by chemical analysis, such as albumin, sugar, collagen, fat, etc.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for proximate principle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)