a. [ad. early mod.L. vesicular-is (whence F. vésiculaire, Pg. vesicular, It. vescicolare), f. L. vēsīcula: see prec.]
1. Having the form or structure of a vesicle; bladder-like.
a. Anat. c. 1720. Gibson, Farrier’s Guide, I. App. (1722), 101. These receive the Chyle … into the vesicular Kernels of the Mesentery.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Lungs, Its inner Laminæ fill up the Interstices, which are below the Bunches of the small Lobes [in the lungs], with little vesicular Cells.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), V. 10. There are no organs of generation that differ so much … as these vesicular bags.
1873. Mivart, Elem. Anat., x. 416. A simple vesicular heart may be continued on forwards into a median artery.
1888. Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 859. The nucleus is single; it is large when full grown, vesicular, with chromatin globules or ribbons.
b. Bot. 1848. Lindley, Introd. Bot. (ed. 4), I. 147. A vesicular organ, which he terms Cistome.
1867. J. Hogg, Microsc., II. i. 303. The spores are developed freely in the vesicular cells destined to produce them.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 514. Their capacity for transport is increased by the vesicular hollow protrusions of the extine.
c. Physics. 1860. A. Greely, Amer. Weather, vii. (1888), 60. It was formerly advanced that these minute drops of rain or fog were vesicular—that is, hollow spheres!
1863. Tyndall, Heat, vi. § 224 (1870), 176. If the particles of water be sufficiently small they will float … without being vesicular.
2. Characterized by the presence of vesicles; composed of parts having the form of vesicles.
a. Anat. 1715. Cheyne, Princ. Relig., I. vi. § 37 (ed. 2), 312. A Muscle is a bundle of Vesicular Threads, or of solid Filaments, involved in one common Membrane.
1833. Sir C. Bell, Hand (1834), 69. Cold-blooded animals … respire less frequently than other creatures,… hence their vesicular lungs.
1848. Carpenter, Anim. Phys., i. (1872), 76. We find a form of nervous tissue,… generally known as the vesicular.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., I. ii. § 16. These central masses all contain grey substance, the cellular or vesicular matter.
1860. Gosse, Rom. Nat. Hist., 364. A true serpent, with large vesicular lungs.
b. Bot. 1793. Martyn, Lang. Bot., Vesicularis … scabrities, vesicular or bladdery ruggedness.
1802. R. Hall, Elem. Bot., 195. Vesicular,… having small bodies like bladders on the surface.
c. Physics. 1794. Sullivan, View Nat., I. 357. He calls them vesicular vapour, whose particles may be distinguished by the eye.
1832. Macgillivray, Trav. Humboldt, xvi. 204. In the beginning of March the accumulation of vesicular vapours became visible.
1834. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sci., xxviii. 296. The vesicular state constituting a cloud.
1880. J. Percy, in Times, 25 Dec., 5/6. The silicate of soda was left in the state of a highly vesicular mass.
d. Geol. 1811. Pinkerton, Petralogy, II. 328 (heading), Vesicular Lava.
1813. Bakewell, Introd. Geol. (1815), 330. The cavities in vesicular lava vary in size from that of a pea to a small nut.
1843. Portlock, Geol., 106. The whiter grits are also sometimes vesicular from the local removal of the calcareous paste.
1882. Geikie, Text-bk. Geol., II. II. iii. 89. When this cellular structure is marked by comparatively few and small holes, it may be called vesicular.
3. Zool. Of worms: (see quot. 1861).
1830. R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 378. The cysts which contain vesicular worms.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. VII. xiii. 391. Under the name of Vesicular or Cystic Helmintha are included those entozoa which terminate in a vesicle, are contained in a cyst, or are composed of the latter only.
1876. trans. Wagner’s Gen. Pathol. (ed. 6), 115. Vesicular Tape-worms are oi considerable size.
4. Path. a. Characterized by the formation or presence of vesicles on the skin.
1818–20. E. Thompson, Cullen’s Nosol. Method. (ed. 3), 328. Pemphigus; Vesicular Fever.
1843. R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., xxv. 318. The vesicular and scaly eruptions occurred in delicate persons.
1876. Duhring, Dis. Skin, 78. Vesicular eczema exhibits the lesion in its most perfect state.
1886. Buck’s Handbk. Med. Sci., II. 632/1. Vesicular eczema may occur in very small patches or in quite extensive areas.
b. Affecting or connected with the vesicles or air-cells of the lungs.
1829. Cooper, Good’s Study Med. (ed. 3), I. 622. These organs [the lungs] are in a state of vesicular or pulmonary emphysema.
1853. Markham, Skoda’s Auscult., 101. By vesicular breathing, I understand that murmur only which is heard during inspiration.
1866. A. Flint, Princ. Med. (1880), 244. Vesicular emphysema … consists in an abnormal accumulation of air within the air-cells, whereby they become distended and their walls often atrophied.
a. 1883. Fagge, Princ. & Pract. Med. (1886), I. 853. It is commonly called the ‘vesicular murmur,’ having been so named when the idea that it arose in the air-cells of the lung was accepted without question.
So Vesiculary a. rare–1.
1754. Phil. Trans., XLVIII. 632. We found, that the animals in the vesicles were dead; but … we had an opportunity of discovering the vesiculary polypes alive, in another coralline.
