See Also: Rankine, William J(ohn) M(acquorn)(encyclopedia)
solitary bundle(medicine)
Rankine, William J McQ(medicine)
Rankine(dictionary)
Rankine scale(medicine)
Rankine cycle(encyclopedia)
solitary(dictionary)
Solitary(medicine)
solitary tract(medicine)
solitary nucleus(medicine)

Rankine, William J(ohn) M(acquorn) (sh) and solitary bundle (medicine)


Rankine, William J(ohn) M(acquorn) (sh)




born July 5, 1820, Edinburgh, Scot.
died Dec. 24, 1872, Glasgow

Scottish engineer and physicist, one of the founders of thermodynamics.

His classic Manual of the Steam Engine and Other Prime Movers (1859) was the first attempt at a systematic treatment of the theory of steam engines. He worked out a thermodynamic cycle of events (the Rankine cycle) that was used as a standard for the performance of steam-power installations in which a condensable vapour provides the working fluid.


solitary bundle (medicine)


solitary bundle -->
solitary tract


A slender, compact fibre bundle extending longitudinally through the dorsolateral region of the medullary tegmentum, surrounded by the nucleus of the solitary tract, below the obex decussating over the central canal, and descending over some distance into the upper cervical segments of the spinal cord. It is composed of primary sensory fibres that enter with the vagus, glossopharyngeal, and facial nerves, and in part convey information from stretch receptors and chemoreceptors in the walls of the cardiovascular, respiratory, and intestinal tracts; in rostral parts of the tract impulses are generated by the receptor cells of the taste buds in the mucosa of the tongue. Its fibres are distributed to the nucleus of the solitary tract.

Synonym: tractus solitarius, fasciculus rotundus, fasciculus solitarius, funiculus solitarius, Gierke's respiratory bundle, Krause's respiratory bundle, round fasciculus, solitary bundle, solitary fasciculus.