(derived from in, and precor, "I pray.") a curse or wish that some evil may befall any one.

The ancients had their goddesses called Imprecations, in Latin Dirae, i.e. Deorum irae, who were supposed to be the executors of evil consciences. They were called Dirae in heaven, Furies on earth, and Eumenides in hell. The Romans owned but three of these Imprecations, and the Greeks only two. They invoked them with prayers and pieces of verses to destroy their enemies.

IMREGNATION, the getting a female with child See Conception.

The term impregnation is also used, in pharmacy, for communicating the virtues of one medicine to another, whether by mixture, coction, digestion, &c.

(a) "It is to be considered, that the constitution is commonly affected by the spasms only, and in proportion to their violence, independent of the secretion and evacuation of the semen. But in some cases even the erection going off without the spasms on the emission, shall produce the same debility as if they had taken place."