Definition of "contagium" [con•ta•gi•um]

• The causative agent of a communicable disease; contagion. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It is doubtful whether it can be conveyed from one person to another; at least nothing is known concerning the "contagium," or germ of conveyance of infection, -- according to the differential diagnosis of Dr.G. Kuhnemann, whose work on the subject is held to be authoritative."
• "Tui precatus munere nostrum reatum dilue, arcens mali contagium, vitæ repellens tædium."
• "The breath and emanations from the skin transmit the _contagium_ from the appearance of the first symptom to the disappearance of the eruption."