Infection

(-fek'shūn.) [From L. inficio, I corrupt.] (Med.) The morbid effluvia of one animal body affecting the similar organs of another. It has been questioned whether this effect can be carried from place to place, and whether most diseases called infectious are not occasioned by local circumstances which affect certain subjects in the population. I. is considered to differ from contagion by being communicated through the air, instead of from person to person. The I. of the plague and of the yellow fever is imported in ships and conveyed in clothing; persons also take I. from the air of the apartments where the sick are confined. Fig. 409.- ANGLO-SAXON FOOT-SOLDIERS. [s. 483]