in ecclesiastical law. See APPROPRIATION.

IMPULSION, in Mechanical Philosophy, a term employed for expressing a supposed peculiar exertion of the powers of body, by which a moving body changes the motion of another body by hitting or striking it. The plainest case of this action is when a body in motion hits another body at rest, and puts it in motion by the stroke. The body thus put in motion is said to be impelled by the other; and this way of producing motion is called IMPULSION, to distinguish it from PRESSION, THRUSTING, or PROTRUSION, by which we push a body from its place without striking it. The term has been gradually extended to every change of motion occasioned by the collision of bodies. See MECHANICS.