Also erron. -ine. [f. TOX-IC + -IN1.] A specific poison, usually of an albuminous nature, esp. one produced by a microbe, which causes a particular disease when present in the system of a human or animal body.
1886. E. R. Lankester, Advancem. Science (1890), 168. In other cases the toxin and the vaccin seem almost certainly to be distinct.
1891. Lancet, 3 Oct., 792. In a few cases … the introduction of the toxines secreted by the bacilli sufficed to set up a commencement of the process in the joints characteristic of rheumatism.
1904. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 10 Sept., 557. The union of toxin and antitoxin is dissociable.
1905. G. A. Reid, Princ. Heredity, ii. 21. Toxins, extremely complex chemical compounds, are defensive weapons which protect the organisms producing them from their enemies, the phagocytes of the blood and tissues.
b. attrib. and Comb.
1896. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., I. 893. In order to produce an immunity all that is required is to render the body toxin-proof.
1902. Encycl. Brit., XXVI. 66/2. In the development of toxin-immunity the doses, small at first, are gradually increased.
1903. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 4 April, 784. No proof is afforded … of a separate toxophore group in the toxin molecule. Ibid. (1904), 10 Sept., 576. The chemical interpretation of toxin-antitoxin antagonism.
Hence ǁ Toxinæmia [Gr. αἶμα blood], the presence of a toxin in the blood: cf. toxæmia (TOX-1), toxicæmia (TOXICO-).
1900. Buck’s Handbk. Med. Sc., I. 284. Various toxæmic conditions … and the different toxinæmias induced by the infectious diseases—diphtheria and typhoid or typhus fever.
