contagium

[kuhn-tey-juhm, -jee-uhm]

noun

Pathology.

plural

contagia 

1. the causative agent of a contagious or infectious disease, as a virus.

contagium

/ kənˈteɪdʒɪəm /

noun

1. pathol the specific virus or other direct cause of any infectious disease

Word History and Origins

Origin of contagium¹

1645–55; < Latin, equivalent to contāg- ( contagion ) + -ium -ium

Word History and Origins

Origin of contagium¹

C17: from Latin, variant of contāgiō _contagion

Example Sentences

Squire observes that the contagium of measles, except in the catarrhal stage, is not far diffusible in the air, but clings to surfaces, and may be thus carried from place to place; on the other hand, children have been brought, while in full eruption, into a house among others, and nursed in a room apart, without any extension of the disease to the most susceptible.

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ETIOLOGY.—The exact nature of the measles contagium has never been satisfactorily established, although we are in possession of numerous researches in that direction, which, however, are to a great extent contradictory.

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They believe that the "lungs are the favorite breeding-ground of the contagium."

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And the facts already mentioned may be recalled, which show that the contagium cannot be a light and subtle substance, since, as has been stated, the immediate attendants upon cholera patients are not as apt as might be expected, on that hypothesis, to contract the disease, while washerwomen inhaling, and probably swallowing, the moist fumes from cholera fomites much more frequently do so; that fomites saturated with the dried discharges are very infectious; and that water is the principal vehicle by which cholera-germs are carried into the stomach.

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Most observers hold that the contagium is not in the blood, but that it resides in the secretions of the respiratory passages, and is most virulent during that stage of the disease when the secretion is abundant.

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