animalculism

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The theory that animalcules cause disease.
2. n. The doctrine or theory of incasement in the male; spermism; spermatism. See incasement.
3. n. Also called animalism.

Wiktionary

1. n. biology, archaic A theory seeking to explain certain physiological and pathological phenomena in terms of animalcules.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Biol.) The theory which seeks to explain certain physiological and pathological phenomena by means of animalcules.
2. n. (Biol.) The theory that the spermatozoön and not the ovum contains the whole of the embryo; spermatism; -- opposed to ovism.