Pl. vibriones and vibrios. [mod.L., f. L. vibrāre VIBRATE v.]
† 1. A genus of minute nematode worms; an anguillule. Obs.
1835. Kirby, Hab. & Inst. Anim., I. iv. 150. The species of Vibrio found in diseased wheat by M. Bauer is oviparous.
1836–9. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., II. 113/2. The higher organized Vibriones have distinct generative organs, and are ovoviviparous.
2. A group or genus of bacterioid or schizomycetous organisms characterized by vibratory motion; a member of this genus; spec. in Bacteriol., a form of bacterium having vibratile cilia and closely resembling spirilla.
1870. H. A. Nicholson, Man. Zool., 33. The bacteria and the vibrios now exhibit a vibratile or serpentine movement through the surrounding fluid.
1875. Payne, Jones & Siev. Pathol. Anat. (ed. 2), 98. This has been shown to depend upon the presence of a peculiar vibrio which lives on the surfaces of wounds and the bandages.
1879. Encycl. Brit., IX. 95/1. Processes of putrefaction having long been known to be invariably accompanied by the formation of vibriones and other microscopic organisms endowed with voluntary motion.
Comb. 1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sci. (1879), I. v. 190. In examining the secretion I regularly found … certain vibrio-like bodies in it.
1898. P. Manson, Trop. Diseases, xvii. 281. If the cholera vibrio be the germ of cholera, then such healthy, vibrio-bearing individuals may well suffice to start an epidemic.
