释义 |
rickettsia|rɪˈkɛtsɪə| Also Rickettsia. Pl. -iæ, ias. [mod.L. Rickettsia (coined in Ger. as the name of a genus by H. da Rocha-Lima 1916, in Berliner klin. Wochenschr. 22 May 567/2), f. the name of H. T. Ricketts (1871–1910), U.S. pathologist, who first described such organisms in 1909 (Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 30 Jan. 379–80) and died of typhus contracted as a result of his research on them: see -ia1.] Any of a group of very small rod-shaped or coccoid micro-organisms that are mostly intracellular parasites in vertebrates and include the causative agents of several febrile diseases in man. Freq. attrib.
1919Jrnl. Med. Res. XLI. 87 The name ‘Rickettsia’ has been applied by da Rocha-Lima to minute bacillary forms found by Hegler and von Prowazek in typhus fever, and regarded as identical with bodies described by Ricketts in Mexican typhus. 1922Hiss & Zinsser Textbk. Bacteriol. (ed. 5) xlviii. 944 Rickettsia-like microorganisms may be present in lice fed upon healthy people... It is not at all conclusively definite that the Rickettsia bodies are micro⁓organisms. 1935Discovery Dec. 375/2 Very significant is the distinction between the various infection-chains of the different forms of Rickettsia disease. 1947Ann. Rev. Microbiol. I. 337 This preparation contains rickettsiae and tissue particles in suspension. 1951Whitby & Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 5) 360 The rickettsiæ are primarily intestinal parasites of arthropod blood-sucking insects..but some half⁓dozen species have become adapted to invade the animal body and cause disease. 1969Times 3 June 6/2 The trachoma agent is one of a group of tiny organisms called the Rickettsias. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 21 Aug. 8/4 The disease is caused by micro-organisms called rickettsiae, which resemble very small bacteria but, like a virus, grow only in susceptible cells. 1976A. L. Smith Microbiol. & Path. (ed. 11) xxvii. 271/2 The rickettsias of the genus Rochalimaea can be cultured in host cell-free media. 1979Sci. Amer. Oct. 88/2 Although..we had isolated the causative agent of Legionnaires' disease, for several weeks we did not know whether the organism was a rickettsia or a bacterium. Hence riˈckettsial a., of, pertaining to, or caused by rickettsiæ.
1940W. H. Holmes Bacillary & Rickettsial Infections V. 76 They discovered that trench fever is a true rickettsial disease transmitted by the body louse. 1947Ann. Rev. Microbiol. I. 338 A method for the preparation of rickettsial antigens from yolk sacs without the use of ether has also been developed. 1977Time 31 Jan. 36/2 The discovery was made not by a man who hunts ordinary bacteria, but by a specialist in leprosy and rickettsial diseases like typhus and spotted fever. |