SPECIES

(Lat.) In Logic, a predicable which is considered as expre ing the whole e ence of the individuals of which it is affirmed. The e ence of an individual is said to consist of two parts: \. The material part, or genus; 2. The formal or distinctive part, of difference. The genus and difference together make up, in logical language, the species: e.g. a "biped" is compounded of the genus "animal,^' and the difference V having two legs." It is obvious that the names species and genus are merely relative; and that the same common terms 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: e. g. the individual, Caesar, belongs to the species man; but man, again, may be said to belong to the species animal, ., as we contemplate higher and more comprehensive terms. A species, in short, when predicated of Individuals, stands in the same relation to them as the genus to the species; and when predicated of other lower species, it is then, in respect of these, a genus, while it is a species in respect of a higher genus. Such a term is called a subaltern species or genus; while the highest term of all, of which nothing can be predicated, is the " summum genus; " the lowest of all, which can be predicated of nothing, the "infima species." The difference which, together with the genus, makes up the species, is termed the " specific diflference." See Predicable, Logic. [s. 1150]