[f. as prec. + -IST. Cf. F. contagionniste.] One who maintains or believes that certain diseases, such as the plague, cholera, and yellow fever, are contagious.
[1826. Blackw. Mag., XIX. 131. Who … would not believe that he was an anti-contagionist?]
1831. Fraser’s Mag., IV. 617. To alter their opinion [about cholera], and enlist under the banner of the contagionists.
attrib. & adj. 1831. in Greville, Mem. Geo. IV. (1875), II. xiv. 157. We have appointed a Board of Health, which is contagionist.
1865. Reader, 11 Nov., 545/3. The ultra-contagionist school.
