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Communicable by contact, by a virus, or by a bodily exhalation; catching; as, a contagious disease.

municability depends on the transmission of the living germs. Many germ diseases are not contagious, some special method of transmission or inoculation of the germs being required.

In a contagious manner.

Quality of being contagious.

Opposing or destroying contagion.

Not contagious; not catching; not communicable by contact. -- Non`con*ta"gious*ness, n.

A preservative against contagious and infectious diseases, and the effects of poison in general. Brande & C.

A chronic contagious affection of the skin, prevalent in the tropics.

esence of a rod-shaped bacterium (Bacillus anthracis), the spores of which constitute the contagious matter. It may be transmitted to man by inoculation. The spleen becomes greatly enlarged and filled with bacteria. Called also splenic fever.

Infections; contagious.

ometimes marked by a cutaneous eruption, when it is often called spotted fever. It is not contagious.

A very contagious and fatal disease of sheep, horses, and cattle. See Maligmant pustule.

a child; esp. a young woman; a maiden. "Stella is no chicken." Swift. Chicken cholera, a contagious disease of fowls; - - so called because first studied during the prevalence of a cholera epidemic in France. It has no resemblance to true cholera.

One who believes in the contagious character of certain diseases, as of yellow fever.

Contagion; contagious matter. "Contagium of measles." Tyndall.

A very dangerous contagious disease in which the air passages, and especially the throat, become coated with a false membrane, produced by the solidification of an inflammatory exudation. Cf. Group.

To free from infectious or contagious matter; to destroy putrefaction; to purify; to make innocuous. When the infectious matter and the infectious matter and the odoriferous matter are one . . . then to deodorize is to disinfect. Ure.

sually from a single point, spreads gradually over its surface. It is usually regarded as contagious, and often occurs epidemically.

A contagious disease of horses, associated with painful ulcerating enlargements, esp. upon the head and limbs. It is of the same nature as glanders, and is often fatal. Called also farcin, and farcimen.

Any substance supposed to be capable of absorbing, retaining, and transporting contagious or infectious germs; as, woolen clothes are said to be active fomites.