TUBERCLE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tubercle

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noun

Tubercle n.

A small knoblike prominence or excrescence, whether natural or morbid; as, a tubercle on a plant; a tubercle on a bone; the tubercles appearing on the body in leprosy.

(Med.) A small mass or aggregation of morbid matter; especially, the deposit which accompanies scrofula or phthisis. This is composed of a hard, grayish, or yellowish, translucent or opaque matter, which gradually softens, and excites suppuration in its vicinity. It is most frequently found in the lungs, causing consumption.

Tubercle bacillus (Med.), a minute vegetable organism (Mycobacterium tuberculosis, formerly Bacillus tuberculosis, and also called Koch's bacillus) discovered by Koch, a German physician, in the sputum of consumptive patients and in tuberculous tissue. It is the causative agent of tuberculosis.

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Etymology of 'Tubercle'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tubercle" Quotes from Famous Books

... in the spring. It had a little flat head that could be drawn inside the body like a turtle, and on the sides were oblique touches of salmon. Something that appeared to be a place for a horn could be seen, and a yellow tubercle was surrounded by a black line. It ate for three days, and then began racing so frantically around the box, I thought confinement must be harmful, so I gave it the freedom of the Cabin, warning all my family to 'look well to their footsteps.' ...

— Moths of the Limberlost • Gene Stratton-Porter

... (Syngenesia), in which latter case the union is generally very slight. It must be remembered, however, that the so-called cohesion of the filaments is in many cases due rather to the formation of compound stamens, i.e. to the formation from one original staminal tubercle of numerous secondary ones, so that the process is rather one of over development than of fusion or of disjunction. These conditions may be met with as accidental occurrences in plants or in flowers, not usually showing this arrangement. Thus, for instance, Professor Andersson, of ...

— Vegetable Teratology - An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants • Maxwell T. Masters

... rectilinear bases, prolonged considerably on each side of the body of the tooth, like the rim of a hat or the flat head of a scupper nail. Of the occipital plates, some present a smooth enamelled surface, while some are thickly tuberculated,—each tubercle bearing a minute depression in its apex, like a crater on the summit of a rounded hill. We find reptilian bones in abundance,—a thing new to Scotch geology,—and in a state of keeping peculiarly fine. They not a little puzzled John Stewart: he could not resist ...

— The Cruise of the Betsey • Hugh Miller

... eruptions vary in size from one line to two inches in diameter, and may be scattered over the entire surface of the body, although they most frequently appear upon the elbows and knees. Alphos may consist of a single tubercle, or of large clusters constituting patches. The scales vary in color and thickness. In Colored Plate III, Figs. 14 and 15, are fine illustrations of alphos. When a person begins to recover from this affection, the scales fall off, ...

— The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English • R. V. Pierce