subsist 
Had it been our sad lot to subsist on other men's charity. 
J. Atterbury. 
4. To inhere; have existence by means of some- 
thing else. 
Though the general natures of these qualities are suf- 
ficiently distant from one another, yet when they come to 
subsist in particulars, and to lie clothed with several ac- 
cidents, then the discernment is not so easy. Smith. 
II. trans. If. To keep in existence. 
The old town [of Selivree] is thinly inhabited ; the pres- 
ent city, which is a poor place, is to the west of it, and is 
chiefly swbmiteil by being a great thorough fare. 
Pococ/ce, Description of the East, II. ii. 139. 
2. To feed; maintain; support with provi- 
sions. 
I will raise one thousand men, subsist them at my own 
expense, and march myself at their head for the relief of 
Boston. Washington, quoted in Adams's Works, II. 360. 
subsistence (sub-sis'tens), . [= F. subsistence 
= Sp. Pg. subsistencia = It. sussistenza, < LL. 
subsistentia, substance, reality, ML. also stabil- 
ity, < L. subsisten(t-)s, ppr. of subsistere, con- 
tinue, subsist : see subsistent."] 1. Eeal being; 
actual existence. 
Their difference from the Pharisees was about the future 
reward, which being denied, they by consequence of that 
error fell into the rest, to deny the Resurrection, the sub- 
sistence spirituall, &c. Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 144. 
2f. Continuance ; continued existence. 
This Liberty of the Subject concerns himself and the 
subsistence of his own regal power in the first place. 
Milton, Eikonoklastes, xxvii. 
Subsistence is perpetual existence. 
Swedenborg, Christian 1'sychol. (tr. by Gorman), p. 19. 
3. That which exists or has real being. 4. 
The act or process of furnishing support to 
animal life, or that which is furnished; means 
of support; support; livelihood. 
In China they speak of a Tree called Magnais, which af- 
fords not only good Drink, being pierced, but all Things 
else that belong to the subsistence of Man. 
Howett, Letters, ii. 54. 
Those of the Hottentots that live by the Dutch Town 
have their greatest sulisistance from the Dutch, for there 
is one or more of them belonging to every house. 
Dampier, Voyages, I. 540. 
5. The state of being subsistent ; inherence in 
something else : as, the subsistence of qualities 
in bodies Subsistence department, a military staff 
department in the United States army, which has charge 
of the purchase or procurement of all provisions for the 
supply of the army. Its chief officer is the commissary- 
general of subsistence, with the rank of brigadier-general. 
Subsistence diet, the lowest amount of food on which 
life can be supported in health. Subsistence stores 
(milil.\ the food-supplies procured and issued for the sup- 
port of an army. The phrase also covers the grain, hay, 
straw, or other forage supplied for the sustenance and 
bedding of animals intended for slaughter in order to pro- 
vide an army with fresh meat. = Syn. 4. Sustenance, etc. 
See living. 
subsistency (sub-sis'ten-si), n. [As subsistence 
(see -ci/).] Same as subsistence. 
A great part of antiquity contented their hopes of sub- 
tixtency with a transmigration of their souls. 
Sir T. Broume. 
We know as little how the union is dissolved that is the 
chain of these differing sttbsfetencies that compound us, as 
how it first commenced. Glanville. 
subsistent (sub-sis'tent), .. [= F. siibsistant 
= Sp. Pg. subsistente"= It. sussistente, < L. sub- 
sisten(t-)s, ppr. of subsistere, continue, subsist: 
see subsist.'] 1. Continuing to exist; having 
existence; subsisting. 
Such as deny there are spirits subsistent without bodies. 
SirT. Browne, Vulg. Err., i. 10. 
2. Inherent. 
These qualities are not subsistent in those bodies, but are 
operations of fancy begotten in something else. Benttey. 
subsistential (sub-sis-ten'shal), a. Pertaining 
to subsistence; especially, in tlieol., pertaining 
to the divine subsistence or essence. 
Having spoken of the effects of the attributes of God's 
essence as such, we must next speak of the effects of his 
three great attributes which som e call subsistential that 
is, his omnipotency, understanding, and will. 
Baxter, Divine Life, i. 7. 
SUbsister (sub-sis'ter), n. [< subsist + -erl.] 
One who subsists ; specifically, one who is sup- 
ported by others ; a poor prisoner. 
Like a subsister in a gown of rugge rent on the left shoul- 
der, to sit singing the counter-tenor by the cage in South- 
warke. Kind-Hart's Dreame (1592). (Halliwett.) 
subsizar(sub'si"zar), . Anunder-sizar; a stu- 
dent of lower standing than a sizar. Also 
spelled subsizer. 
Friar Bacon's subsizer is the greatest blockhead in all 
Oxford. Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay. 
How lackeys and subsizers press 
And scramble for degrees. 
Bp. Corbet, Ans. to A Certain Poem. 
subsoil (sub'soil), n. The under-soil ; the bed 
or stratum of earth or earthy matter which lies 
immediately under the surface soil, and which 
6030 
is less finely disintegrated and contains less or- 
ganic matter than that. When, as is often the case, 
it is densely compacted, it becomes what is frequently 
called hard-pan. In agriculture a great deal depends on 
the character of the subsoil, more especially as to whether 
it does or does not permit water to pass through it. 
Subsoil is the broken-up part of the rocks immediately 
under the soil. Its character of course is determined by 
that of the rock out of which it is formed by subaerial dis- 
integration. A. Geikie, Encyc. Brit., X. 237. 
Subsoil-plow. See plow. 
subsoil (sub'soil), v. t. [< subsoil, n.] In agri., 
to employ the subsoil-plow upon ; plow up so 
as to cut into the subsoil. 
The farmer drains, irrigates, or subsoils portions of it. 
J. S. Mill. 
SUbsoiler (sub'soi-ler), n. [< subsoil + -er 1 .] 
One who or that which subsoils ; an implement 
or part of an implement used in subsoiling. The 
Engineer, LXX. 472. 
subsolar (sub-so'lar), a. [< L. sub, under, + 
sol, the sun : see solar^."] Being under the sun ; 
terrestrial; specifically, being between the 
tropics. Fitzroy, Weather Book, p. 71. 
subsolaryt (sub'so-la-ri), a. Same as subsolar. 
The causes and effects of all 
Things done upon this subsolary ball. 
A. Brome, Paraphrase on Ecclea., i. 
SUbsolid (sub-sol'id), n. A solid incompletely 
inclosed. 
subspatulate (sub-spat'u-lat), a. Nearly or 
somewhat spatulate. 
subspecies (sub'spe"shez), n.; pi. subspecies. 
[< NL. subspecies, < L. sub, under, + species, 
species.] In zool. and bot., a variety of a spe- 
cies ; a climatic or geographical race recogniza- 
bly different from another, yet not specifically 
distinguished ; a conspecies. The nearest synonym 
is race. (See race*, n., 5 (a) (6).) Subspecies is a stronger 
and stricter word than variety, though nearly synonymous 
with the latter in its biological sense ; it means decidedly 
more than strain, sport, or breed in like senses. The in- 
terpretation of subspecies and their actual handling in 
zoological and botanical taxonomy have been much 
mooted. Such forms are commonly regarded as nascent 
or incipient species (see species, 5) which have acquired 
subspecific characters under varying conditions of en- 
vironment, and whose specific invalidity is determinable 
by the fact of their intergradation. See intergrade, v. i. 
subspecific (sub-spe-sif'ik), . Of the nature 
of a subspecies ; not quite specific ; conspecific. 
subspecifically (sub-spe-sif 'i-kal-i), adv. As a 
subspecies. Fisheries of IT. S., V. ii. 819. 
subsphenoidal (sub-sfe-noi'dal), a. Situated 
beneath or on the under side of the sphenoid. 
subsphere (sub'sfer), . A solid imperfectly 
or approximately spherical. 
SUbspherical (sub-sfer'i-kal), a. Imperfectly 
spherical; of a form approaching that of a 
sphere. 
subspherically (sub-sfer'i-kal-i), adv. In the 
form of a subsphere. Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., 
XLIV. 150. 
subspinous (sub-spi'nus), a. 1. Somewhat spi- 
nous or prickly ; Uke a spine to some extent : 
as, subspinous hairs in the pelage of a mammal. 
2. Situated under (ventrad of) the spinal col- 
umn ; hypaxial with reference to the backbone ; 
subvertebral. 3. Situated or occurring below, 
beneath, or on the under side of a spine, as (1) of 
a vertebra, or (2) of the scapula ; infraspinous : 
as, a subsjnnous muscle (the infraspinatus). 
Subspinous dislocation of the humerus, a disloca- 
tion in which the head of the humerus rests beneath the 
spine of the scapula. Subspinous fossa, the fossa be- 
low the spine of the scapula ; the infraspinous fossa. 
subspiral (sub-spi'ral), n. Somewhat spiral; 
especially, in eoncli., noting the opercula of 
some shells which are faintly or indistinctly 
marked on one side with a spiral line, or this 
line itself. See cut under operculum. 
subsplenial (sub-sple'ni-al), a. Situated under 
the splenium of the corpus callosum: noting 
certain cerebral gyres. 
SUbst. An abbreviation of (a) substantive and 
(6) substitute. 
substage (sub'staj), . An attachment to the 
compound microscope, placed beneath the or- 
dinary stage, and used to support the achro- 
matic condenser, the polarizing prism, etc. 
It is usually arranged with a rack-and-pinion movement, 
centering screws, etc., by which the position may be 
adjusted ; and in the swinging substage there is an arc- 
shaped arm upon which the support holding the con- 
denser can be moved, so as to give very oblique illumina- 
tion when desired. 
Substalagmite (sub-sta-lag'mlt), n. A name 
used by Nelson for the 'compact deposit of car- 
bonate of lime, without crystalline structure, 
filling crevices in the soft calcareous sandstone 
of Bermuda. Similar deposits when crystal- 
line are called by him stalagmite. Trans. Geol. 
Soc. London, 1849, V. 106. 
substance 
SUbstalagmitic (sub-stal-ag-mit'ik), a. [< sub- 
stalagmitc + -i'c.] Relating to or consisting of 
substalagmite. Darwin, Geol. Observations, I. 
vii. 162. 
substance (sub'stans), n. [< ME. substance, sub- 
stauuce, < OF. substance, suustaunce, F. substance 
= Sp. substancia, sustancia = Pg. substancia = 
It. svstanza, sustanzia, < L. substantia, being, es- 
sence, material, < substan(t-)s, ppr. of si/bstare, 
stand under or among, be present, hold out, < 
sub, under, + stare, stand: see stand.'] 1. That 
which exists by itself, and in which accidents 
inhere ; that which receives modifications, and 
is not itself a mode ; that which corresponds, 
in the reality of things, to the subject in logic. 
Aristotle and Kant agree in making the conception of sub- 
stance essentially the same as that of a subject of predi- 
cation. But it is difficult to find a property by which 
substances may be recognized ; for the above definition 
seems to afford none. Many philosophers hold that what- 
ever is perdurable is substance. This, however, would in- 
clude mechanical energy. Indeed, since every physical 
law can be stated in the form of an equation, and since 
that equation must have a constant term, it follows that 
every absolute uniformity of nature must consist in the 
perdurability of some quantity. Aristotle makes sub- 
stances proper, called first substances, to be things indi- 
vidual ; but this comports with few philosophical systems. 
Thus, in the medieval development of Aristotelianism, 
scientific propositions were regarded as universal state- 
ments concerning natures, so that the true subjects, or sub- 
stances, were universal. Moreover, to make individuality 
the criterion of substance would seem to make space, as 
the source of individuality, the only first substance. At 
any rate, under that view, spatial positions would be sub- 
stances in a preeminent sense. Others, remarking that 
the parts of space are not distinct in themselves, apart from 
their relations to material things, make self-existence, or 
the being distinct from all other things, not by virtue of 
modifications or characters, but by the thing's own nature, 
or arbitrary extrusion of itself, to he the chief mark of a 
substance, which would thus be most simply defined as an 
independent entity. Substance and essence are nearly sy- 
nonymous, except that the latter cannot appropriately be 
used to designate an individual and lifeless thing. 
They add . . . that as he [Christ] coupled the substance 
of his flesh and the tnibstance of bread together, so we 
together should receive both. 
Hooker, Eccles. Polity, v. 67. 
Since the substance of your perfect self 
Is else devoted, I am but a shadow ; 
And to your shadow will I make true love. 
Shale., T. G. of V., iv. 2. 124. 
A substance is a being subsisting of itself and subject to 
accidents. To subsist by itself is nothing else than not 
to be in anything as in a subject ; and it agrees to all sub- 
stances, even to God, but to be subject to accidents only 
to finite ; for God is not subject to accidents. Substance 
is either first or second. The first is a singular substance, 
or that which is not said of a subject, as Alexander, Bu- 
cephalus. The second is that which is said of a subject, 
as man, horse. For man is said of Alexander and Philip, 
and horse of Bucephalus and Cyllarus. 
Bttrgersdicius, tr. by a Gentleman, i. 4. 
I confess there is another idea which would be of gen- 
eral use for mankind to have, as it is of general talk as if 
they had it ; and that is the idea of substance, which we 
neither have, nor can have, by sensation or reflection. If 
nature took care to provide us any ideas, we might well 
expect they should be such as by our own faculties we can- 
not procure to ourselves : but we see on the contrary that 
since by those ways whereby our ideas are brought into 
our minds this is not. we have no such clear idea at all. 
and therefore signify nothing by the word substance but 
only an uncertain supposition of we know not what, i. e., 
of something whereof we have no particular distinct posi- 
tive idea, which we take to be the substratum, or support, 
of those ideas we do know. . . . Had the poor Indian 
philosopher (who imagined that the earth also wanted 
something to bear it up) but thought of this word substance, 
he needed not to have been at the trouble to find an ele- 
phant to support it, and a tortoise to support his elephant : 
the word substance would have done it effectually. And 
he that inquired might have taken it for as good an an- 
swer from an Indian philosopher, that substance, without 
knowing what it is, is that which supports the earth, as 
we take it for a sufficient answer and good doctrine from 
our European philosophers that substance, without know- 
ing what it is, is that which supports accidents. So that 
of substance we have no idea of what it is, but only a 
confused obscure one of what it does. 
Locke, Human Understanding, i. 4, 18, and ii. 13, 19. 
Substance, if we leave out the sensuous condition of per- 
manence, would mean nothing but a something that may 
be conceived as a subject, without being the predicate of 
anything else. 
Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, tr. by Muller, II. 130. 
2. The real or essential part; the essence. 
And wel I woot the substance is in me, 
If any thing shal wel reported be. 
Chaucer, Prol. to Nun's Priest's Tale, 1. 87. 
Miserable bigots, . . . who hate sects and parties dif- 
ferent from their own more than they love the substance 
of religion. Burke, Rev. in France. 
At the close of the [seventeenthl century, . . . the sov- 
ereign retained the shadow of that authority of which the 
Tudors had held the substance. 
Macaulay, Sir William Temple. 
All the forms are fugitive, 
But the substances survive. 
Emerson, Woodnotes, ii. 
3. In ilicoL, the divine being or essence, com- 
mou to the three persons of the Trinity. 
