a. [ad. late L. synecticus, a. Gr. συνεκτικός, f. συνέχειν: see prec. and -IC.] a. Of a cause: Producing its effect directly, without the intervention of means; immediate; spec. in Old Med. = CONTINENT a. 6 b. b. Math. Applied to certain continuous functions: see quot. 1888. So † Synectical a. (in sense a); Synecticity, the quality of being synectic.
1697. trans. Burgersdicius Logic, I. xvii. 68. A Cause Efficient is said to be next in Species which is so joyned by its Existence to its Effect, as that it is joyned to it without any mediating Virtue . Hitherto appertaineth the Emanative Cause: Likewise the Continent, or Synectical of the Physicians.
1888. B. Williamson, in Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 72/1. A function of a complex variable which is continuous, one-valued, and has a derived function when the variable moves in a certain region of the plane is called by Cauchy synectic in this region.
1890. Cent. Dict., s.v. Cause, The physicians, following Galen, recognized three kinds of causes, the procatarctic, proëgumenal, and synectic. The synectic, containing, or continent cause is the essence of the disease itself considered as the cause of the symptoms. Ibid. (1891), Synecticity.