moleculan.

1666 D. Coxe Let. 19 Jan. in R. Boyle Corr. (2001) III. 31 These Subtilized principles meeting together may bee readily united..: which Substances thus united Constitute a little masse, or molecula of mettall, many of which are usually associated before they appeare in a visible or sensible forme.

1678 R. Cudworth True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. i. 16 Asclepiades..supposed all the Corporeal world to be made..of Dissimilar and inconcinn Moleculæ, i.e. Atoms of different Magnitude and Figures.

a1704 J. Locke Elem. Nat. Philos. in Coll. Several Pieces (1720) 229 It may be now fit to consider what these sensible bodys are made of, and that is, of unconceivably small bodyes, or atoms, out of whose various combinations bigger molleculae are made.

1751 J. Locke Elem. Nat. Philos. xii. 53 Smal bodies, of Atoms, out of whose various combinations bigger molleculæ are made.

1796 E. Burke Two Lett. Peace Regicide Directory France i, in Wks. (1808) VIII. 191 All these particular moleculæ united, form the great mass of what is truly the body politick.

1800 tr. E. J. B. Bouillon-Lagrange Man. Course Chem. I. 14 The moleculæ, which first unite themselves to a body, adhere with much greater force than the last.

1967 Science 9 June 1338/1 [In the 18th-century theory of Boscovitch] these ‘atoms’, in combination with one another, made up the moleculae of the chemical elements.

1713 W. Cheselden Anat. Humane Body iii. x. 128 In such Persons as have their Blood too thin, the Globuli..cohere and form Moleculæ or Polypus's.

1807 R. Morris & J. Kendrick Edinb. Med. & Physical Dict. II Nebula... It is also employed in the same sense as molecula, for a peculiar appearance or quality in the urine.