In the civil law. A general class or division, comprising several species. In toto jure generi per speciem derogatur, et illud potis8imum habetur quod ad speciem directum est, throughout the law, the species takes from the genus, and that is most particularly regarded which refers to the species. A man’s lineage, or direct descendants.
In logic, it is the first of the universal ideas, and is when the idea is so common that it extends to other ideas which are also universal; e.g., incorporeal hereditament is genus with respect to a rent, which is species. Woolley, Introd. Log. 45; 1 Mill, Log. 133.