membrana

plural membranae · archaic plural membranæ

1. countableuncountableA membrane.

   It sometimes happens likewise that they appear at the same time, when the membranæ are bordered by knotty excrescences and the lungs with tubercles.

   1866, John Gamgee, The Cattle Plague; With Official Reports of the International Veterinary Congresses, Held in Hamburg, 1863, and in Vienna, 1865, London: Robert Hardwicke, page 781

   5 more examples

   By it he also explains the appearances which have induced Henle to imagine that it was furnished with innumerable glandular follicles, inasmuch as in vertical sections of the membranæ the appearance afforded by the deeper furrows is precisely that of mucous follicles.

   1868, Edwin Lankester, George Busk, editors, Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, volume VIII, London: John Churchill and Sons, page 40

   Chronic aural catarrh most surely exists now on the right side, and as the membranæ are similar in appearance, each presenting unmistakable evidences of the aforesaid disease, I believe the left side had been affected by the chronic catarrh some time before, which in all probability induced the vertiginous attacks by an extension of disease to the labyrinth, and perhaps to the semicircular canals.

   1877, Charles H. Burnett, “Section VI. Diseases of the Internal Ear”, “Chapter I. Primary and Secondary Inflammation”, in The Ear; Its Anatomy, Physiology, and Diseases. A Practical Treatise for the Use of Medical Students and Practitioners, Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea, “Secondary Inflammation of the Internal Ear”, page 579

   By this means the adhesion was divided, that portion of the membrana which was adherent being cut away and either removed or left adherent to the inner tympanic wall.

   1893, Albert H. Buck, editor, Supplement to the Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences, volume IX, New York: William Wood & Company, page 252, column 1

   July 21st, 1893, the patient was etherized, and I endeavored to remove first the right and then the left incus, after their exposure by exsection of the posterior-superior quadrants of the membranæ.

   1893, Charles H. Burnett, “The Surgical Treatment of Chronic Tympanic Vertigo, Often Miscalled Ménière’s Disease”, in Transactions of the American Otological Society, volume V, New Bedford: Mercury Publishing Company, page 497

   Otoscopic examination of the ear revealed retracted but not thickened membranæ. The incus was visible through each. Hearing in the left ear was nil; in the right ear by means of the ear-trumpet only. The tuning-fork was not heard per ossa in either ear. The membranæ were found restricted in their movement under the pneumatic speculum.[…]By November 1st the right membrana had healed, and the man could hear conversation close to his ear without an ear-trumpet. A little tinnitus existed. / The day after the removal of the incus the patient could hear the voice close to the left ear, which had been impossible before. This ability, however, gradually disappeared before the membrana closed.

   1894, S. Weir Mitchell, “Concerning the History of the Discovery of Reflex Ocular Neuroses, and the Extent to Which These Reflexes Obtain”, in George M. Gould, editor, The Medical News. A Weekly Medical Journal, volume LXIV, Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co., page 452, column 2

2. countableuncountableA thin, animal-derived, flexible planar material, such as parchment.

   The parchment being much dearer than papyrus, the membranae consisted only of a few leaves.

   1950, Hermathena: A Series of Papers on Literature, Science, and Philosophy, page 32

   2 more examples

   Parchment was used for the MSS. of the Pentateuch in the time of Josephus, and the membranae of 2 Tim. iv. 13, were skins of parchment.

   1913, Charles Higgins, editor, Key to the Bible: Being an Encyclopedia, Concordance and Dictionary of Persons, Places and Things Mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, page 441, column 2

   In the opening poem, he recommends the edition in membrana, which is the popular and less costly one. In I 117 he has in view the de luxe edition which, apparently, was sold in a different book-shop. We learn from Martial that the public at large apparently contented itself with a less costly edition in membrana,⁴ whereas only wealthier persons bought a regularly got-up edition (clad in purple, etc.). We also can understand the disposition of the poems, for in the opening poem (I 2) Mart. wishes to attract the attention of the public at large and, therefore, recommends the edition in membrana.[…] / ⁴ In Book XIV among the presents of the Saturnalia books in membrana are mentioned again. Friedlaender pp. 296 and 299 ff. wrongly thinks that the membranae were the more costly presents, whereas Birt, Das antike Buchwesen (Leipzig 1882) had already offered the correct explanation.

   1956, Vigiliae Christianae, pages 1–2