‖ prophylaxis
(prɒfɪˈlæksɪs)
[mod.L., f. Gr. πρό, pro-2 + ϕύλαξις a watching, guarding, after prophylactic.]
Med. The preventive treatment of disease. Also transf.
| 1842 in Dunglison Med. Lex. 1843 R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xxvii. 342 An elaborate and critical history of the pathology, prophylaxis, and treatment of syphilis. 1866 A. Flint Princ. Med. (1880) 109 The prevention of disease..constitutes a division of medicine called prophylaxis. 1897 A. Drucker tr. Ihering's Evol. Aryan 376, I should call it the Prophylaxis of a primitive race. |