1906 6 116 Instead of leaving the bottles containing the autolysing bacteria at rest, they were repeatedly shaken.
1932 J. S. Huxley vi. 173 The autolysing agencies which operate at metamorphosis.
1954 H. W. Florey iv. 72 It was, however, not possible to show that dead tissue fragments, autolysing tissue, and tryptic or peptic digests had any attractive power.