Definition of "effluvium"

She was now bending over a huge light wood blaze, with a pipe of rude structure and no small dimensions in her mouth, from which the occasional puff went forth, filling the apartment with the unpleasant effluvia of the vilest leaf-tobacco.

1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XV, page 188

It was the mere effluvium of the flame, the subtle ether that it cast off as it passed, working on us, and making us feel strong as giants and swift as eagles.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887

And he breathed the breath of the house—a dank savour rather than a smell—a cold, musty effluvium as from underground vaults mingled with the reeking exhalations of linoleum and mildewed and rotten woodwork.

1906, O. Henry, The Furnished Room

Reversible hair loss or effluvium occurs following either endogenous or exogenous damage to anagen hair follicles […] .

2000, Dr. Otto Braun-Falco et al., “Diseases of hair”, in Dermatology, page 1136