(medicine, dated) That tends to prevent the development of something, especially a disease.
1892, William M. Welch, Small-pox, Hobart Amory Hare, Walter Chrystie, A System of Practical Therapeutics, Volume II, Lea Brothers & Co., page 257,
If any ectrotic measure were reliable, how easy it would be to limit the amount of cutaneous inflammation, to lessen, if not prevent, the so-called secondary fever, and thus obviate the danger from exhaustion.
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