zyme

[Gr. zymē =leaven.] Pathol.: (See extract.) "Corresponding with the adjective zymotic is the substantive zyme . This is a useful name, by which we refer to the poisonous cause of zymotic diseases. It is simpler than the word zymine, originally proposed by Dr. Farr; and (what is much more important) to speak of a zymotic poison as a ' zyme ' does not imply the acceptance of any particular theory of disease, while, on the hand, the use of the word 'germ' distinctly conveys the idea of some organized structure, itself the cause of disease by subsequent growth and multiplication."- Dr . Horsley , in Quain's Dict. Medicine, p. 1806.