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Webster 1913 Edition

Infection

In-fec′tion

,
Noun.
[Cf. F.
infection
, L.
infectio
a dyeing.]
1.
The act or process of infecting.
There was a strict order against coming to those pits, and that was only to prevent
infection
.
De Foe.
2.
That which infects, or causes the communicated disease; any effluvium, miasm, or pestilential matter by which an infectious disease is caused.
And that which was still worse, they that did thus break out spread the
infection
further by their wandering about with the distemper upon them.
De Foe.
3.
The state of being infected; the condition of suffering from an infectious disease; contamination by morbific particles; the result of infecting influence; a prevailing disease; epidemic.
The danger was really very great, the
infection
being so very violent in London.
De Foe.
4.
That which taints or corrupts morally;
as, the
infection
of vicious principles
.
It was her chance to light
Amidst the gross
infections
of those times.
Daniel.
5.
(Law)
Contamination by illegality, as in cases of contraband goods; implication.
6.
Sympathetic communication of like qualities or emotions; influence.
Through all her train the soft
infection
ran.
Pope.
Syn. –
Infection
,
Contagion
.
– Infection is often used in a definite and limited sense of the transmission of affections without direct contact of individuals or immediate application or introduction of the morbific agent, in contradistinction to contagion, which then implies transmission by direct contact.
Quain
. See
Contagious
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Infection

INFEC'TION

,
Noun.
[L. inficio.] The act of infecting, or the act by which poisonous matter, morbid miasmata or exhalations produce disease in a healthy body. The words contagion and infection are frequently confounded. The proper distinction between them is this. Contagion is the virus or effluvium generated in a diseased body, and capable of producing the specific disease in a healthy body by contact or otherwise. Marsh miasm is not properly contagion. Infection is any thing that taints or corrupts; hence it includes contagion, and any other morbid, noxious matter which may excite disease in a healthy body. Hence,
1.
The morbid cause which excites disease in a healthy or uninfected body. This cause may be contagion from a diseased body, or other poisonous or noxious matter received into the body or under the skin. The infection of the plague and of yellow fever, is said to be imported in ships and conveyed in clothing; persons are said to take the infection from a diseased person, or from the air of apartments where the sick are confined. The infection spreads in a city, or it is free from infection. Pestilential exhalations are called infections.
Infection is used in two acceptations; first, as denoting the effluvium or infectious matter exhaled from the person of one diseased, in which sense it is synonymous with contagion; and secondly, as signifying the act of communication of such morbid effluvium, by which disease is transferred.
2.
That which taints, poisons or corrupts by communication from one to another; as the infection of error or of evil example.
3.
Contamination by illegality, as in cases of contraband goods.
4.
Communication of like qualities.
Mankind are gay or serious by infection.

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