specialIst, (c assh)

[Eng. special; -ist.] One who devotes himself to a special or particular branch of a profe ion, art, or science; one who has studied and acquired a special knowledge of or skill in some particular subject. "It is most desirable that specialists should, from time to time, overstep the narrow limits of their own subject, and judge and criticize the work of specialists in cognate branches."-Athenœum, Oct. 14, 1882. spěc-i-al-1-tỹ (ca h), s. [Fr. spécialité.] 1. A particular matter or point; a specialty. "What we term natural selection is the epitome of the improvements acquired by specialization in the proce of adaptation."-Oscar Schmidt: Doctrine of Descent, p. 190. 2. That property by which a person or thing is specially characterized; that branch of a profe ion, art, or science to which one has specially devoted himself, and in which he has acquired a special knowledge. 3. A quality or attribute peculiar to a species. spěc-ial-i-zā -tion (cas sh); s. [Eng. special iz(e); -ation .] I Ord. Lang.: The act of specializing; the act of devoting to a particular use or function; the act of devoting one's self to a special or particular branch of study. "Extreme enthusiasm for specialization in study has never pervaded this country, any more than it has England, though for different reasons." - Scribner's Magazine , Dec., 1878, p. 290. II. Biol .: The adaptation of a particular organ for the performance of a particular function. Animals of low organization are le specialized than those higher in the scale of being, and are older in geological date. As they rise, organs which were originally used to perform several functions become more and more limited in their action, and consequently carry it out more effectively. Many causes have contributed to this end, one of the most potent being natural selection. *2. A special term or article in a contract. "Let specialties be therefore drawn between us." Shakesp.: Taming of the Shrew , ii. 1. 3. That property by which a person or thing is specially characterized; that to which a person de- votes himself, and in which he is specially versed: speciality. II. Law : A special contract; an obligation or bond; the evidence of a debt by deed or instrument;. such a debt is called a debt by specialty in distinc- tion from simple contract. specialty-debts, s. pl. Law : Bonds, mortgages, debts secured by writing under seal. I. Ordinary Language : *1. Visible or sensible representation; appearance to the senses or mind; sensible or intellectual representation; an image. "Those pretty mirrors transmit the species of a vast excellency." -Bp. Taylor: Sermons, vol. ii., ser. 5. *2. A public representation, spectacle, or exhibi tion; a show. ( Bacon . ) 3. A kind, a sort, a variety, a description; as, a species of wit, a species of cunning, . *4. Metal coined into a circulating medium; coin, specie. [In Low Latin species , from having the meaning of wares in general, came to mean valuables, precious goods, and the like.] "Rome po e ed a much greater proportion of the cir given series of individuals from a single pair, or from pairs exactly similar to each other, is in no case capable of proof. Darwin, in his Origin of Species, says: "I look at the term species as one arbitrarily given for the sake of convenience to a set of individuals closely resembling each other, and that it does not e entially differ from the term variety, which is given to le distinct and more fluctuating forms" (ch. ii.). (DARWIN ISM.J That book popularized in England the idea of the mutability of species, the chief factor in which Darwin believed to be Natural Selection, though he afterward modified his views to some extent as to its importance. The latest theory of the origin of species is that of Physiological Selection, propounded by Mr. W. G. J. Romanes, F. R. S., who holds that many species have arisen on account of variations in the reproductive system, leading to some infertility with parent forms-mutual sterility being thus regarded as one of the conditions , and not as one of the consequences of specific differentiation. (Journal Linn. Soc., Zool., July, 1886; see also Oscar Schmidt: Doctrine of Descent , ch. v.) 2. Civil Law : The form or shape given to materials; form, figure. 3. Logic : A predicable that expre es the whole e ence of its subject in so far as any common term can expre it. The names species and genus are merely relative, and the same common terin may, in one case, be the species which is predicated of an individual, and in another case the individual of which a species is predicated. Thus, the individual, George, belongs to the logical species man, while man is an individual of the logical species animal. [SPECIFIC-DIFFERENCE.] IMG:content-1789.png:[blocks in formation] Arbuthnot: On Coins. II. Technically : 1. Biology : A somewhat ambiguous term used to denote a limited group of organisms, resembling each other, and capable of reproducing similar organisms, animal or vegetable, as the case may be. A species is defined by Haeckel ( Gen. Morpho logie , ii. 359) as "the sum of all cycles of reproduction which, under similar conditions of existence, exhibit similar forms." Linnæus held that all specics were the direct descendants from and had the characters of primevally created forms ( Totidem nu meramus species quot in principio formæ sunt creatæ), and in this he was followed by those who accepted the first chapter of Genesis in a strictly literal sense. Buffon and Cuvier, leaving the question of origin on one side, held the distinguishing ques marks of a species to be similarity and capability of reproduction. But besides varieties and races in various species of animals and plants, dimorphism, and in others trimorphism, exists, so that close similarity cannot be taken as a criterion, and the value attached to external resemblances varies in the case of different observers. At a later date was added the physiological definition that all the individuals of every species were capable of producing fertile offspring, by intercro ing, whereas sexual intercourse between different species produced only sterile offspring or was actually infertile; and, although subject to exceptions, this 2. Med .: A remedy which po e es a peculiar efficacy in the prevention or cure of a particular disease; an unfailing remedy. "The specificks usually prescribed in such cases."Wiseman: Surgery , bk. i., ch. v. specific-area, s. Biol .: The space over which any individual is distributed. †specific-centers, s. pl . Biol .: The points at which particular species are supposed to have been created, according to those who believe that each has originated from a com mon stock. ( Woodward .) specific-character, s. [CHARACTER, S., B. 2.] specific-difference, s. Logic : (See extract.) "Specifick difference is that primary attribute which distinguishes each species from one another, while they stand ranked under the same general nature or genus. Though wine differs from the other liquids, in that it is the juice of a certain fruit, yet this is but a general or generick difference; for it does not distinguish wine from cyder or perry; the specifick difference of wine therefore is its pre ure from the grape."- Watts : Logic.