animalcule

[Fr., from Lat. animal cula (q.v.). In Port. animalculo.] An animal so minute as to be visible only by means of the microscope. The term is applied specially to members of the cla es Infusoria and Rotifer a; the former called Infusorial, and the latter Wheel-animalcules. [INFUSORIA, ROTIFER A.] Infusorial Animalcules."-Owen: Com par at. Anat. of the Invertebrata (1843), p. 17. the Rotifer a, or Wheel-animalcules."Huxley: Introd. to the Cla if. of Animals (1869), p. 47. tăn-im-al-cu-līne, a. [Eng., ., animalcule; -ine.] Pertaining or relating to animalcula. Not so common a term as ANIMALCULAR (q.v.). " Animalculine putrefaction is the immediate cause of those diseases."- Dr . Dwight: Trav. in New Eng., ., vol. i, p. 436.