[sb. of action f. CARNIFY: see -FICATION.]
† 1. The formation of flesh or sarcose tissue. Obs.
a. 1734. North, Lives, III. 224. If a wound was … come to carnification.
2. Pathol. Alteration of certain tissues so that they become like flesh; esp. fleshy condition of the lung, as in the fœtus.
1758. J. S., Le Dran’s Observ. Surg. (1771), 351. The Carnification of the Bone.
1834. J. Forbes, trans. Laennec’s Dis. Chest, 183. The lung has entirely lost its crepitous feel under the finger, and has acquired a consistence and weight altogether resembling those of liver … modern anatomists have named this condition of the organ hepatization or carnification.
1881. Syd. Soc. Lex., Carnification of the lung, a term applied by Laennec to simple condensation of the lung, without inflammation, in which it becomes tough, leathery, inelastic, and having the appearance of muscle; it is the condition which is found in the fœtal lung, etc.
3. The conversion of bread into flesh by transubstantiation.
1826. Southey, Vind. Eccl. Angl., 418. Giving their sanction to miracles of carnification.
1827. Q. Rev., XXXVI. 341. A famous wafer in which the miracle of carnification had been manifested.
