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SECRET (Lat. secretum, hidden, concea...

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 572 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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See also:

SECRET (See also:Lat. secretum, hidden, concealed) , that which is concealed from See also:general knowledge. In See also:special senses the word is applied to (a) a See also:prayer in the See also:Roman and other liturgies, said during See also:mass by the See also:priest in so See also:low a See also:voice that it does not reach the See also:congregation, and (b) a covering or See also:skull-cap made of See also:steel fitting See also:close to the See also:head. In See also:law, the question of secrecy is an important one. Generally, See also:English law does not require a See also:solicitor or See also:barrister to disclose secrets entrusted to them by a client, and the same probably holds See also:good in the See also:case of medical men. In the case of ministers of See also:religion, it has never been definitely settled how far they can be compelled to disclose in See also:evidence what has been confided in the secrecy of the See also:confessional. But according to the 113th See also:Canon, a priest of the See also:Church of See also:England would commit an ecclesiastical offence in revealing a secret disclosed to him in See also:confession "except it be such as by the See also:laws of this See also:realm his own See also:life may be called into question for concealing the same." As to what are called " See also:trade secrets," it had been decided (Merry-See also:weather v. See also:Moore, 1892, 2 Ch. 518) that it is a See also:breach of See also:contract to reveal trade secrets acquired during service. See also:Official Secrets.—By the Official Secrets See also:Act 1889 it was made a See also:misdemeanour for an official to communicate any See also:information or documents concerning the military or See also:naval affairs of Her See also:Majesty, to any See also:person to whom it ought not to be communicated. If the information be communicated to a See also:foreign See also:state it is a See also:felony. In See also:Germany the betrayal of military secrets is punishable under an imperial law of 1893. Secret Service.—In practically every civilized See also:country, there is always a See also:department of the See also:government charged with the See also:duty of espionage, either See also:diplomatic or domestic.

Its officials See also:

work in secret, and certain sums of See also:money are placed at the disposal of the head of the department, and expended as he may think See also:fit, without having to render any specific See also:account of them. Various departments of governments have also their own departmental secret service, for the better guarding against frauds, such as in the See also:United States, the See also:Treasury Department and the See also:Post See also:Office. The various See also:European codes generally have dealt with breach of secrecy, e.g. s. 300 of the See also:German Penal See also:Code imposes a See also:fine up to 1500 marks and imprisonment up to three months on doctors, attorneys and other professional persons who reveal a secret entrusted to them in their professional capacity. For this offence also the See also:French code, See also:art. 378, imposes imprisonment of from one to six months and a fine of from too to Soo francs. See Brouardel, Le Secret medical (See also:Paris, 1893) ; Hallays, Le Secret professionnel (Paris, 1890). SECR$TAN, See also:CHARLES (1815-1895), Swiss philosopher, was See also:born on the 19th of See also:January 1815, at See also:Lausanne, where he died on the 21st of January 1895. Educated in his native See also:town and later under See also:Schelling at See also:Munich, he became See also:professor of See also:philosophy at Lausanne (1838 to 1846), and at See also:Neuchatel (185o to 1866). In r866 he returned to his old position at Lausanne. In 1837 he founded, and for a See also:time edited, the Revue suisse. His See also:principal See also:works were La Philosophie de la liberte (1848); La Raison et le Christianisme (1863); La Civilisation et See also:les croyances (1857); See also:Man Utopie (1892).

The See also:

object of his See also:writing was to build up a rational, philosophical religion, to reconcile the ultimate bases of See also:Christianity with the principles of metaphysical philosophy. For a detailed examination of his philosophy, see Pillon, La Philosophic de CharlesSecretan. SECRETARY-See also:BIRD, a very singular See also:African bird, first accurately made known, from an example living in the See also:menagerie of the See also:prince of See also:Orange, in 1769 by A. See also:Vosmaer 1 in a See also:treatise published simultaneously in Dutch and French, and afterwards included in his collected works issued, under the See also:title of Regnum Animale, in 1804. He was told that at the Cape of Good See also:Hope this bird was known as the " See also:Sagittarius " or See also:Archer, from its striding gait being thought to resemble that of a bowman advancing to shoot, but that this name had been corrupted into that of " Secretarius." In See also:August 177o G. See also:Edwards §aw an example Secretary-Bird. (apparently alive, and the survivor of a pair which had been brought to England) in the See also:possession of a Mr See also:Raymond near See also:Ilford in See also:Essex; and, being unacquainted with Vosmaer's wprlt, he figured and described it as "of a new genus" in the Philosophical Transactions for the following See also:year (lxi. pp. 55, 56, p1,ii.). In 1776 P. Sonnerat (Voy. Nouv. Guinee, p.

87, pl. 5o) again described and figured; but not at all correctly, the See also:

species, saying (but no doubt wrongly) that he found it in 1771 in the Philippine Islands. A better See also:representation was given by D'Aubenton in Le Vaillant (Sec. Voy. Afrique, ii. p. 273) truly states that Kolben in 1719 (Caput Bonae Spei hodiernsum, p. 182, French version, ii. p. 198) had mentioned this bird under its See also:local name of " Snake-eater ' (Slangenvreeter, Dutch See also:translation, i. p. 214) ; but that author, who was a See also:bad naturalist, thought it was a See also:Pelican and also confounded it with the See also:Spoonbill, which is figured to illustrate his account of it. the See also:Plan„ hes enluminies (721); in 178o See also:Buffon (Oiseaux, vii. p. 330) published some additional information derived from Querhoent, saying also that it was to be seen in some English menageries; and the following year J. Latham (Synopsis, i. p.

20, pl. 2) described and figured it from three examples which he had seen alive in England. None of these authors, however, gave the bird a scientific name, and the first conferred upon it seems to have been that of Falco See also:

serpentarius, inscribed on a See also:plate bearing date 1779, by See also:John See also:Frederick See also:Miller (See also:Ill. Nat. See also:History, See also:xxviii.), which plate appears also in See also:Shaw's Cimelia Physica (No. 28) and is a misleading See also:caricature. In 1786 Scopoli called it See also:Otis secretarius—thus referring it to the Bustards,' and See also:Cuvier in 1798 designated the genus to which it belonged, and of which it still remains the See also:sole representative, Serpentarius. Succeeding systematists have, however, encumbered it with many other names, among which the generic terms Gypogeranus and Ophiotheres, and the specific epithets reptilivorus and cristatus, require mention here .2 The Secretary-bird is of remarkable See also:appearance, See also:standing nearly 4 ft. in height, the See also:great length of its legs giving it a resemblance to a See also:Crane or a See also:Heron; but unlike those birds its tibiae are feathered all the way down. From the back of the head and the nape hangs, loosely and in pairs, a See also:series of See also:black elongated feathers, capable of erection and dilation in periods of excitement' The skin See also:round the eyes is See also:bare and of an orange See also:colour. The head, See also:neck and upper parts of the See also:body and wing-coverts are bluish See also:grey; but the carpal feathers, including the primaries, are black, as also are the feathers of the vent and tibiae—the last being in some examples tipped with See also:white. The tail-quills are grey for the greater See also:part of their length, then barred with black and tipped with white; but the two See also:middle feathers are more than twice as See also:long as those next to them, and drooping downwards See also:present a very unique appearance. Its See also:chief See also:prey consists of See also:insects and See also:reptiles, and as a foe to See also:snakes it is held in high esteem; although it is undoubtedly also destructive to See also:young See also:game.

It seems to possess a See also:

strange partiality for the destruction of snakes, and successfully attacks the most venomous species, striking them with its knobbed wings and kicking forwards at them with its feet, until they are rendered incapable of offence, when it swallows them. The See also:nest is a huge structure, placed in a See also:bush or See also:tree, and in it two white eggs, spotted with See also:rust-colour, are laid. The young remain in the nest for a long while, and even when four months old are unable to stand upright. They are very frequently brought up tame. The Secretary-bird is found, but not very abundantly and only in some localities, over the greater part of See also:Africa, especially in the See also:south, extending northwards on the See also:west to the See also:Gambia and in the interior to See also:Khartum. The systematic position of the genus Serpentarius has long been a See also:matter of discussion, and is still one of much See also:interest, though of See also:late classifiers have been See also:pretty well agreed 4n placing it in the See also:order Accipitres. Most of them, however, have shown great want of See also:perception by putting it in the See also:family Falconidae. No anatomist can doubt its forming a See also:peculiar family, Serpentariidae, differing more from the Falconidae than do the Vulturidae; and the fact of A. Milne-Edwards having recognized in the See also:Miocene of the See also:Allier the fossil See also:bone of a species of this genus, S. robustus (Otis. See also:foss. See also:France, ii. pp. 465-468, pl. 186, See also:figs.

1-6), proves that it is an See also:

ancient See also:form, one possibly carrying on a See also:direct and not much modified descent from a generalized form, whence may have sprung not only the Falconidae but perhaps the progenitors of the Ardeidae and Ciconiidae, as well as the puzzling Cariamidae (See also:Seriema, q.v.). (A.

End of Article: SECRET (Lat. secretum, hidden, concealed)

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