Also 7 cellul. [ad. L. cellula, dim. of cella CELL sb.1]
† 1. A small compartment; a pigeon-hole. Also fig.; cf. CELL sb.1 11 c. Obs.
1652. Urquhart, Jewel, Wks. (1834), 293. I could have firreted out of topick celluls such variety of arguments. Ibid. (a. 1693), Rabelais, III. xxxiii. 240. The Celluls of his Brain.
1764. Foote, Patron, II. i. A kind of bureau; where, in separate cellules, my different knowledge … is stor’d.
1818. J. Brown, Psyche, 212. So liquor aids myself—like rain, It opes the cellules of the brain.
1819. H. Busk, Banquet, III. 209. Unlock the cellules, closets of the brain.
2. Phys. A minute cell (CELL sb.1 11) or cavity.
(In Fr. the dim. cellule is used in sense of CELL sb.1 12.)
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 237. Cellular tissue, which … offers an instance of reticulated cellules.
1857. H. Miller, Test. Rocks, xi. 493. Both possess discs on the side of their cellules.
1869. Gillmore, Rept. & Birds, Introd. 2. In birds, the lungs are spongy, the cavity of the air-bags becoming obliterated by the multiplication of vascular cellules.
3. Zool. (See quot.)
1848. Dana, Zooph., ii. 16, note. By cellule, as hereafter used, the minute pores of the corallum will be referred to.
