Bilateral symmetry, or two-sidedness, in vertebrates, etc., is that in which the body can be divided into
symmetrical halves by a vertical plane passing through the middle; radial symmetry, as in echinoderms,
is that in which the individual parts are arranged symmetrically around a central axis; serial symmetry,
or zonal symmetry, as in earthworms, is that in which the segments or metameres of the body are
disposed in a zonal manner one after the other in a longitudinal axis. This last is sometimes called metamerism.
3. (Bot.) (a) Equality in the number of parts of the successive circles in a flower. (b) Likeness in the
form and size of floral organs of the same kind; regularity.
Axis of symmetry. (Geom.) See under Axis. — Respective symmetry, that disposition of parts in
which only the opposite sides are equal to each other.
Sympathetic
(Sym`pa*thet"ic) a. [See Sympathy, and cf. Pathetic.]
1. Inclined to sympathy; sympathizing.
Far wiser he, whose sympathetic mind
Exults in all the good of all mankind.
Goldsmith. 2. Produced by, or expressive of, sympathy.
Ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.
Gray. 3. (Physiol.) (a) Produced by sympathy; — applied particularly to symptoms or affections. See Sympathy.
(b) Of or relating to the sympathetic nervous system or some of its branches; produced by stimulation on
the sympathetic nervious system or some part of it; as, the sympathetic saliva, a modified form of saliva,
produced from some of the salivary glands by stimulation of a sympathetic nerve fiber.
Sympathetic ink. (Chem.) See under Ink. — Sympathetic nerve (Anat.), any nerve of the sympathetic
system; especially, the axial chain of ganglions and nerves belonging to the sympathetic system. —
Sympathetic powder (Alchemy), a kind of powder long supposed to be able to cure a wound if applied
to the weapon that inflicted it, or even to a portion of the bloody clothes. Dunglison. — Sympathetic
sounds (Physics), sounds produced from solid bodies by means of vibrations which have been communicated
to them from some other sounding body, by means of the air or an intervening solid. — Sympathetic
system (Anat.), a system of nerves and nerve ganglions connected with the alimentary canal, the
vascular system, and the glandular organs of most vertebrates, and controlling more or less their actions.
The axial part of the system and its principal ganglions and nerves are situated in the body cavity and
form a chain of ganglions on each side of the vertebral column connected with numerous other ganglions
and nerve plexuses.
Sympathetical
(Sym`pa*thet"ic*al) a. Sympathetic.
Sympathetically
(Sym`pa*thet"ic*al*ly), adv. In a sympathetic manner.
Sympathist
(Sym"pa*thist) n. One who sympathizes; a sympathizer. [R.] Coleridge.
Sympathize
(Sym"pa*thize) v. i. [imp. & p. p. Sympathized ; p. pr. & vb. n. Sympathizing ] [F.
sympathiser. See Sympathy.]
1. To have a common feeling, as of bodily pleasure or pain.
The mind will sympathize so much with the anguish and debility of the body, that it will be too distracted
to fix itself in meditation.
Buckminster.
