Function
in physiology, the proper office of any organ in the animal or vegeof any organ in the animal or vegetable economy. Thus the function of the lachrymal gland is to secrete tears; of the liver, to secrete bile; of the stomach, gastric juice, the fluid to digest the food.
The three most important of all the functions, as those of the heart, lungs, and brain, are called the vital functions, from being necessary for the support of the living body. In mathematics, one quantity is said to be a function of another, or of several others, when its value depends on those of the latter. Thus the area of a triangle is a function of its three sides, and y=a+bx+cx² is a function of a, b, c, and x. Functions receive distinctive names according to the nature 3. Satan's Mushroom 4. Death-cup long, and from 30 to 50 miles wide. Opening into it are Chignecto Bay and Mines Channel at the N. extremity, and Passamaquoddy Bay near its mouth. It receives the St. John and St. Croix rivers ceives the St. John and St. Croix rivers, and though very deep, navigation is dangerous. The tide rises here to the height of 71 feet, rushing with great and dangerous rapidity. FÜNEN, an island of the Danish archipelago, separated from Jütland by the strait called Little Belt; area 1,123 square miles. Its shores are deeply indented; its interior is undulating, and marshes. The soil is productive. Prothere are numerous lakes, streams, and ducts, corn, flax, hemp, and fruit. Exports, corn, cattle, horses, honey, fruit, butter, leather. It trades principally with Sweden and Norway. It forms with other islands a province of DEN- MARK (q. v.). Chief towns Odense, the capital; Svendborg, and Nyeborg.