TUBERCLE BACILLUS • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Tubercle bacillus

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noun

Tubercle n.

A small knoblike prominence or excrescence, whether natural or morbid; as, a tubercle on a plant; a tubercle on a bone; the tubercles appearing on the body in leprosy.

(Med.) A small mass or aggregation of morbid matter; especially, the deposit which accompanies scrofula or phthisis. This is composed of a hard, grayish, or yellowish, translucent or opaque matter, which gradually softens, and excites suppuration in its vicinity. It is most frequently found in the lungs, causing consumption.

Tubercle bacillus (Med.), a minute vegetable organism (Mycobacterium tuberculosis, formerly Bacillus tuberculosis, and also called Koch's bacillus) discovered by Koch, a German physician, in the sputum of consumptive patients and in tuberculous tissue. It is the causative agent of tuberculosis.

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Etymology of 'Tubercle bacillus'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tubercle bacillus" Quotes from Famous Books

... Lungs—How to Keep it from Spreading. Tuberculosis of the lungs is the most dangerous of all forms, both because the lungs appear to have less power of resistance against the tubercle bacillus, and also because from the lung, the bacilli can readily be coughed up and blown into the air again, or spit onto the floor, to be breathed into the lungs of other people, and thus give them the disease. Two-thirds of all who die of tuberculosis die of the pulmonary, or lung, form of the ...

— A Handbook of Health • Woods Hutchinson