a. [f. late L. subcutāneus, f. sub- SUB- 1 b + cutis skin + -āneus: see -EOUS. Cf. It. subcutaneo; F. sousculané.]

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  1.  Lying or situated under the skin.

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1656.  Blount, Glossogr., Subcutaneous, between the skin and the flesh.

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1698.  A. De la Pryme, Diary (Surtees), 180. Her distemper was perhaps a kind of a dropsy, or a gathering together of a subcutanious water.

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1744.  Phil. Trans., XLIII. 117. It is very probable, that none of the subcutaneous Juices are opaque.

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1831.  Knox, Cloquet’s Anat., 141. The subcutaneous cellular tissue is traversed by large veins.

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1835–6.  Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 466, note. In general the anomalous artery is the radial, and is subcutaneous in its course.

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1872.  T. Bryant, Pract. Surg., 12. The healing of subcutaneous wounds.

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  2.  Living under the skin.

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1664.  Power, Exp. Philos., I. 22. This almost invisible subcutaneous Inhabitant.

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1815.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol., iv. (1818), I. 86. It does not appear … that the species … are … subcutaneous.

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1849.  Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. vii. 361. The larva is subcutaneous in the leaves of the common Chickweed.

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  3.  Of operations, etc.: Performed or taking place under the skin; characterized by application of a remedy beneath the skin; hence, of instruments by which such operations are performed or remedies administered; hypodermic.

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1651.  Biggs, New Disp., ¶ 241. A subcutaneous expurgation, should be sent out by the higb way and sink of all sordid excrements.

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1868.  Garrod, Mat. Med. (ed. 3), 381. The method of introducing medicine into the system by subcutaneous injection has gained much ground of late.

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1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., Subcutaneous Syringe, an instrument for injecting medicinal solutions beneath the skin.

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1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 935. The subcutaneous administration of antitoxic serum.

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  Hence Subcutaneously adv., under the skin, hypodermically; Subcutaneousness.

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1727.  Bailey (Vol. II.), Subcutaneousness, the lying under the Skin.

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1875.  H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 231. When the drug is given subcutaneously.

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1885.  Klein, Micro-Org., 46. Saliva of the healthy dog and of man inoculated subcutaneously into rabbits sometimes produces death.

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