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(Med.) The theory which attributes contagious and infectious diseases, suppurative lesions, etc., to the agency of germs. The science of bacteriology was developed after this theory had been established.

A highly contagious and very destructive disease of horses, asses, mules, etc., characterized by a constant discharge of sticky matter from the nose, and an enlargement and induration of the glands beneath and within the lower jaw. It may transmitted to dogs, goats, sheep, and to human beings.

A contagious inflammatory disease of the genitourinary tract, affecting especially the urethra and vagina, and characterized by a mucopurulent discharge, pain in urination, and chordee; clap.

, and multiplication of bacteria or protozoans in the body; a germ disease. It may not be contagious.

The act or practice of communicating a disease to a person in health, by inserting contagious matter in his skin or flesh.

tal, or pesthouse for the reception of diseased persons, particularly those affected with contagious diseases.

hands and feet with destruction of the bones and joints. It is incurable, and is probably contagious.Mycobacterium leprae, curable in most cases by therapy with a combination of antibiotics, but cases resistant to therapy are increasing.

Of or pertaining to the plague or contagious disorders.

Disease, especially of a contagious kind. Lues venerea, syphilis; -- called also simply lues.

ening a fatal issue; virulent; as, malignant diphtheria. Malignant pustule (Med.), a very contagious disease, transmitted to man from animals, characterized by the formation, at the point of reception of the virus, of a vesicle or pustule which first enlarges and then breaks down into an unhealthy ulcer. It is marked b…

A contagious febrile disorder commencing with catarrhal symptoms, and marked by the appearance on the third day of an eruption of distinct red circular spots, which coalesce in a crescentic form, are slightly raised above the surface, and after the fourth day of the eruption gradually decline; rubeola. Measles commence…

m which is supposed to act like a ferment in causing or propagating certain infectious or contagious diseases; a pathogenic bacterial organism.

d passions, esp., that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality; as, the pathos of a picture, of a poem, or of a cry. The combination of incident, and the pathos of catastrophe. T. Warton.

Pest-bearing; pestilential; noxious to health; malignant; infectious; contagious; as, pestiferous bodies. "Poor, pestiferous creatures begging alms." Evelyn. "Unwholesome and pestiferous occupations." Burke.

Specifically, the disease known as the plague; hence, any contagious or infectious epidemic disease that is virulent and devastating. The pestilence That walketh in darkness. Ps. xci. 6.

A contagious disease of fowls, characterized by hoarseness, discharge from the nostrils and eyes, and an accumulation of mucus in the mouth, forming a "scale" on the tongue. By some the term pip is restricted to this last symptom, the disease being called roup by them.

An acute malignant contagious fever, that often prevails in Egypt, Syria, and Turkey, and has at times visited the large cities of Europe with frightful mortality; hence, any pestilence; as, the great London plague. "A plague upon the people fell." Tennyson. Cattle plague. See Rinderpest. -- Plague mark, Plague spot,…

nd aromatic. The southern species is X. Carolinianum. Gray. -- Prickly heat (Med.), a noncontagious cutaneous eruption of red pimples, attended with intense itching and tingling of the parts affected. It is due to inflammation of the sweat glands, and is often brought on by overheating the skin in hot weather. -- Pri…

y days, during which a ship arriving in port, and suspected of being infected a malignant contagious disease, is obliged to forbear all intercourse with the shore; hence, such restraint or inhibition of intercourse; also, the place where infected or prohibited vessels are stationed.

k; tending to return to a former worse state. Relapsing fever (Med.), an acute, epidemic, contagious fever, which prevails also endemically in Ireland, Russia, and some other regions. It is marked by one or two remissions of the fever, by articular and muscular pains, and by the presence, during the paroxism of spiral…