Sym'pa-thĕt'ic or Sym'pa-thĕt'ic-al, a.
a. [Fr. sympathique, It. & Sp. simpatico.]
Sense 1. Inclined to or exhibiting sympathy; sympathizing.
And wiser he whose sympathetic mind Exults in all the good of all mankind. Goldsmith.
Sense 2. (Med.) Produced by sympathy; — applied to symptoms and affections which occur in any part of the body in consequence of an affection of another part, more or less remote.
Sympathetic ink. See INK. — Sympathetic nerve (Anat.), a nerve consisting of two nervous cords, one on each side of the spinal column, extending from the head to the pelvis, in the course of which are numerous nervous ganglia, and which sends branches to the principal viscera, the organs of special sense, and to the cranial and spinal nerves. It controls the caliber of the arteries, and the temperature of the parts to which it is distributed; — called also the great sympathetic nerve and trisplanchnic nerve. — Sympathetic powder (Alchemy), a kind of powder formerly supposed to be possessed of the wonderful property that, if spread on a cloth dipped in the blood of a wound, the wound would be healed, though the patient was at a distance. — Sympathetic sounds, sounds produced from solid bodies by means of vibrations caused by the vibrations of some sounding body, these vibrations being communicated by means of the air or some intervening solid body.