1890 Chambers's Jrnl. 13 Sept. 588/2 It is not..the mere phasic change of the moon that influences the weather.

1898 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. V. 417 The number [of lymphocytes] in the blood undergoes phasic variation.

1947 Sci. News 5 24 Gjessing concluded that the phasic disturbance of nitrogen metabolism constituted the fundamental pathology of the disorder, the mental changes being merely the outward symptoms.

1993 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 38 123 The Aristotelian categorization represents a classification of situations..in terms of abstract phasic structures.

1906 C. S. Sherrington Integrative Action Nerv. Syst. viii. 302 The very muscles that to the observer are most obviously under excitation by the tonic system are those most obviously inhibited by the phasic reflex system.

1922 Lancet 8 July 85/2 The activity of the gastric musculature is partly static or postural and partly phasic or peristaltic.

1956 Jrnl. Physiol. 134 48 A temperature receptor..has..a high coefficient of phasic discharge to temperature change or a high coefficient of tonic discharge to maintained temperatures.

1973 Sci. Amer. May 97/1 Many human receptors, such as the ones that sense pressure on the skin, are phasic; if they were not, one would be constantly conscious of such things as a wristwatch or a shirt.

1991 Lancet 9 Mar. 597/2 Tonic activity of pharyngeal constrictors disappears during sleep apnoea in man as does phasic inspiratory discharges of some upper airway muscles.

1928 J. F. Dashiell Fund. Objective Psychol. x. 300 Another view is that a striped muscle is supplied by two kinds of efferent nerves, one innervating it phasically and the other posturally.

1961 Science 14 Apr. 1134/3 The present investigation proves..that the bulbar-ascending deactivating control is phasically brought into action each time the reticular activating system is activated.

1997 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 352 1685/1 It might make sense to have separate brain areas respond phasically and tonically to aversive stimulation.