Ca-tăl'y-sĭs, n.
n. [Gr. κατάλυσις, from καταλύειν, to destroy, dissolve, from κατά, down, and λύειν, to loose.]
Sense 1. A dissolution into parts; degeneration; decay. [Obs.] “Sad catalysis and declension of piety.” Evelyn.
Sense 2. (Chem.) The influence by which, as was supposed by Berzelius and some other chemists, decomposition and recomposition of the elements of certain substances are effected by the mere contact of other substances, which do not enter into actual combination with the first; as in the formation of ether from alcohol by means of sulphuric acid.
☞ Other chemists, as Liebig, call in question this mode of explaining the effects produced, and refer them to other causes than the mere contact of the substance supposed to act by catalysis.