Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SPE-CIES, n. [spe'shiz; L. from specio, to see. See Special.]

1. In zoology and botany, all individuals that are precisely alike in every character not capable of change by any accidental circumstances, and capable of uniform, invariable, and permanent continuance by natural propagation. All changes produced by accidental causes, in individuals of a species, and which are not capable of uniform, invariable, and permanent continuance by natural propagation, indicate und mark what are called varieties. There are as many species as there are different invariable forms or structures of vegetables. – Martyn.
2. In logic, a special idea, corresponding to the specific distinctions of things in nature. – Watts.
3. Sort; kind; in a loose sense; as, a species of low cunning in the world; a species of generosity; a species of cloth.
4. Appearance to the senses; visible or sensible representation. An apparent diversity between the species visible and audible, is that the visible doth not mingle in the medium, but the audible doth. – Bacon. The species of letters illuminated with indigo and violet. [Little used.] – Newton.
5. Representation to the mind. Wit … the faculty of imagination in the writer, which searches over all the memory for the species or ideas of those things which it designs to represent. [Little used.] – Dryden.
6. Show; visible exhibition. Shows and species serve best with the common people. [Not in use.] – Bacon.
7. Coin, or coined silver and gold, used as a circulating medium; as, the current species of Europe. – Arbuthnot. In modern practice, this word is contracted into specie. What quantity of specie has the bank in its vault? What is the amount of all the current specie in the country? What is the value in specie, of a bill of exchange? We receive payment for goods in specie, not in bank notes.
8. In pharmacy, a simple; a component part of a compound medicine. – Johnson. Quincy.
9. The old pharmaceutical term for powders. – Parr.