ANIMALCULE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Animalcule

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

noun

Animalcule n.

A small animal, as a fly, spider, etc. (Obs.)

(Zool.) An animal, invisible, or nearly so, to the naked eye. See Infusoria. Note: Many of the so-called animalcules have been shown to be plants, having locomotive powers something like those of animals. Among these are Volvox, the Desmidiacae, and the siliceous Diatomaceae.

Spermatic animalcules. See Spermatozoa.

See images of 'Animalcule'

Etymology of 'Animalcule'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Animalcule" Quotes from Famous Books

... phagocytic theory of immunity advanced and defended by a brilliant series of experiments by Metschnikoff and his pupils conducted in the Pasteur Institute. Metschnikoff's first observations were made on the daphnea, a small animalcule just visible to the naked eye which lives in fresh water. The structure of the organism is simple, consisting of an external and internal surface between which there is a space, the body cavity; daphneae are transparent and can be studied under the microscope while living. Metschnikoff ...

— Disease and Its Causes • William Thomas Councilman

... being inaccessible: being too high and being too low. At least as much, perhaps, as the first is the second to be desired. More surely than the eagle escapes the arrow, the animalcule escapes being crushed. This security of insignificance, if it had ever existed on earth, was enjoyed by Gwynplaine and Dea, and never before had it been so complete. They lived on, daily more and more ecstatically wrapt in each other. The heart saturates itself with love as with ...

— The Man Who Laughs • Victor Hugo

... necessarily include progressive development—it only takes advantage of such variations as arise and are beneficial to each creature under its complex relations of life. And it may be asked what advantage, as far as we can see, would it be to an infusorian animalcule—to an intestinal worm, or even to an earthworm—to be highly organized. If it were no advantage, these forms would be left, by natural selection, unimproved or but little improved, and might remain for indefinite ages in their present lowly condition. And geology tells us that some of the ...

— Introduction to the Science of Sociology • Robert E. Park

... class Infusoria, so called because they were early found to be abundant in various infusions, are characterized by numerous fine cilia or hair-like organs by means of which the organism moves about and procures its food. The well-known "slipper animalcule" (Paramoecium) (Fig. 11), and the "bell-animalcule" (Vorticella) (Fig. 12) are two common representatives. The Paramoecia were the animals mostly used by Jennings in his wonderfully interesting experiments ...

— Insects and Diseases - A Popular Account of the Way in Which Insects may Spread - or Cause some of our Common Diseases • Rennie W. Doane

Words linked to "Animalcule" : organism, being