Contagious

(kon-ta' -jus). Communicable or transmi ible by contagion, or by a specific contagium. Infectious applied to a disease engendered by a specific agency, which, once present, may multiply and renew itself indefinitely, and which always gives rise to the same disease, (a) Miasmatic applied to an infectious disease of which the specific cause exists only in certain g., malaria, pneumonia, acute rheumatism, (b) Contagious applied to a disease of which the cause is transmitted from person to person, through houses, villages, cities, and countries, e.g., variola, morbilli, scarlatina, diphtheria, etc. (c) Miasmatic contagious applied to an infectious disease of which the specific cause is carried by persons, or their emanations, to a locality, and in the soil, water or houses of which it multiplies and thence generates the disease, e.g., cholera, enteric fever, yellow fever. C. Typhus. Synonym of Typhus Fever, q. v.