Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

STRONGILUS, in natural history, a genus of the Vermes Intestina class and order. Body round, long, pellucid, glabrous; the fore part globular, truncate, with a circular aperture fringed at the margin; the hind part of the female entire and pointed; of the male dilated into loose, distant, pellucid membranes. There are two species, viz. S. equinus, and S. ovinus; the latter is found in the intestines of sheep; the former has an opaque head and a black intestine; it inhabits the stomach of the horse in great numbers; the male is of a pale yellow, with a fine yellowish membrane covering the intestines; the tail is three-leaved, with a small spine or two; female with white filiform vesicles surrounding

the intestines.

STROP, in naval affairs, a piece of rope, spliced generally into a circular wreath, and used to surround the body of a block, so that the latter may be hung to any particular situation about the masts, yards, or rigging. Strops are also used to fasten upon any large rope, for the purpose of hooking a tackle to the eye of the strop, in order to extend, or pull with redoubled effort upon the same rope.

STROPHE, in ancient poetry, a certain number of verses, including a perfect sense, and making the first part of an ode. What the couplet is in songs, and the stanza in epic poetry, the strophe is in odes.

STRUMPFIA, in botany, so named in memory of Christopher Car. Strumpff, professor of chemistry and botany at Halle in Madgeburgh, a genus of the Syngenesia Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Composite Numentaceæ. Essential character: calyx five-toothed, superior; corolla five-petalled; berry one-seeded. There is only one species,

viz. S. maritima. It is a native of Curacoa, on rocks by the coast.

STRUTHIO, the ostrich, in natural history, a genus of birds of the order Gallina Generic character: the bill straight, depressed like that of a duck, and rounded at the end; wings short, and unfit for flight; legs naked above the knee; two toes placed forward. Gmelin enumerates four species of this genus, several of which have characters not a little dissimilar in some points, and such as have induced Brisson and Latham to adopt a different arrangement. Having noticed this circumstance, we shall adhere to the Linnæan system. S. camelus, or the black ostrich, is about eight feet long, and when erect measures about seven feet, and sometimes eight in height. One was exhibited in London in 1750,

weighing three hundred pounds. It is found in various parts of Africa, and about the Cape of Good Hope is particularly abundant. In the parts of Asia,

near Africa, it is also met with. The idea of these birds burying their eggs in the sand, where the sun brings them to maturity, is contradicted by Kolben, who states that he has driven the ostrich from its nest innumerable times to procure its eggs for food, adding, that these constitute a most excellent repast, and that one is sufficient for four moderate persons. The ostrich subsists entirely on vegetable ally, the most hard and even sharp and productions, but will swallow, occasionpointed substances. Iron, and various other metals, and even glass, have often been found in its stomach, and have unquestionably often proved fatal. It is related, upon respectable authority, that an ostrich will carry a man upon its back, and move with very considerable speed; some make the same remark with re

spect to two men. When unincumbered by any burden its speed is truly extraordinary, and will exceed, in some instances, the ordinary rapidity of a horse. Ostriches are taken by the natives near the Cape, after a pursuit of two or three days, from mere exhaustion, through which they suffer themselves to be destroyed merely by clubs. Dogs are sometimes employed to hunt them down, followed by men on horseback, who contrive, by means of a long hooked staff, to lay hold of one of the legs of the bird, and thus bring it to the ground. Sometimes they are approached and destroyed by the stratagem of advancing against them in one of the skins of their own species. They are applied to various purposes. Their feathers form an admirable orna

ment for the ladies: their skins are of sufficient thickness to be manufactured for the purposes of leather; the fat part of their bodies is in high, but perhaps fanciful, estimation in many parts for paralytic and rheumatic complaints; even their eggs are used as goblets, and, if some authors may be credited, young ostriches constitute an agreeable variety for the ta ble. See Aves, Plate XIV. fig. 1.

S. casuarius, or the galeated cassowary, is nearly equal in magnitude to the ostrich, but has a much shorter neck, and therefore is greatly inferior in height. On the top of its head is a species of helmet three inches high, and one thick at the base. Each wing, or what appears as such, is destitute of feathers, and has five bare shafts like those of a porcupine, and the body is covered with loose webbed feathers of a rusty black colour. It is never found beyond the tropical limits, and is no where abundant within them. It is unable to fly, but runs with great speed; and though it lives only on vegetables and fruits, which it is said to swallow unbroken, it is courageous, and even sometimes ferocious, and employs its legs to annoy its adversary by kicking.

S. Nova Hollandia, or the New Holland cassowary, is very similar to the above, but considerably longer.

S. rhea, or the American ostrich, is stated to have been seen by various travellers, but no specimen appears to have been received in this country. It is said to be most numerous in the valleys of the Andes. It subsists partly on fruits, but refuses scarcely any thing that is thrown to it, however inconvenient and pernicious to it. Its favourite food consists of flies, in taking which, it is peculiarly active and skilful. Each of its eggs is supposed to contain two pounds of fluid, and it lays between fifty and sixty of these. It calls its young ones by a sound extremely resembling the whistle of a human being, and defends itself by kicking. Its feathers are in high estimation among the Indians for the embellishment of their persons, and are used in forming ornamental coverings for shade.

STRUTHIOLA, in botany, a genus of the Tetrandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Veprecucule. Thymelex, Jussieu. Essential character: corolla none; calyx tubular, with eight glands at the mouth; berry juiceless, one-seeded. There are five species, all natives of the southern promontory of Africa.

VOL. XI.

STRYCHNOS, in botany, a genus of the Pentandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Lurida. Apocineæ, Jussieu. Essential character: corolla fiveparted; berry one-celled, with a woody rind. There are three species: we shall notice the S. nux vomica, poison nut. It is a native of the East Indies, and is common in almost every part of the coast of Coromandel, flowering during the cold season. The wood is hard and durable, and is used for many purposes by the natives. The root is used to cure intermitting fevers, and the bites of venomous snakes. The seed of the fruit is the officinal nux vomica; it is about an inch broad, and nearly a quarter of an inch thick, covered with a kind of woolly matter; internally it is tough and hard, like horn; to the taste extremely bitter, but having no remarkable smell; it consists chiefly of a gummy matter; the resinous part is very inconsiderable. Nux vomica is reckoned amongst the most powerful poisons of the narcotic kind; it proves fatal to dogs in a very short time. Loureiro relates, that a horse died within a quarter of an hour, after taking an infusion in wine of the seeds in an half roasted state.

STUARTIA, in botany, a genus of the Monadelphia Polyandria class and order. Natural order of Columniferæ. Tiliaceæ, Jussieu. Essential character: calyx simple; style simple, with a five-cleft stigma; pome juiceless, fibe-lobed, one-seeded, opening five ways. There are two species, viz. S. malacodendron; and S. pentagynia; both natives of Virginia.

STUDDING sails, are those which are extended in moderate and steady breezes beyond the skirts of the principal sails, where they appear as wings to the yardarms.

STURNUS, the stare or starling, in natural history, a genus of birds of the order Passeres. Generic character: the bill straight and depressed; nostrils surrounded and protected by a prominent rim; tongue hard and cloven; middle toe joined to the outermost, as far as the first joint. There are seventeen species, of which we shall notice the following:

S. vulgaris, the common starling, weighs about three ounces, and is well known nearly throughout the old world. It builds in rocks, houses, and the hollows of the trunks of trees; but rarely on the branches, unless when availing itself of the deserted nest of some other bird. In winter, starlings are scen in immense M m

multitudes, in company with several other British birds, especially fieldfares and redwings; and their flight is particularly marked by whirling and nearly circular movements, which, while they extremely delay their actual progress, do not absolutely prevent it. They assemble in the mornings to make their excursions for food, which consists of worms and insects, returning to their stations in the evening, and, at both seasons, exhibiting extraordinary tumult and clamour. In confinement, they eat with avidity pieces of raw meat; and, in a state of nature, they are supposed to prefer animal food to vegetable, recurring to the last only when the former is not to be found. They are extremely docile and mimetic, and may be taught not merely a great variety of sounds, but even words and phrases.

STYLE, a word of various significations, originally deduced from a kind of bodkin, wherewith the ancients wrote on plates of lead, or on wax, &c. and which is still used to write on ivory leaves, and paper prepared for that purpose, &c.

STYLE, in dialling, denotes the gnomon or cock of a dial, raised on the plane thereof, to project a shadow.

STYLE, in botany, is a part of the pistil of plants, and is of various figures, but al ways placed on the germen: it gives origin to the stigma.

STYLE, in matters of language, a particular manner of expressing one's thoughts agreeably to the rules of syntax; or, the manner wherein the words, constructed according to the laws of syntax, are arranged among themselves, suitably to the genius of the language.

STYLEPHORUS, in natural history, a genus of fishes of the order Apodes. Ge. neric character: eyes pedunculated, standing on a short, thick cylinder; snout lengthened, directed upwards, retractile towards the head, by means of a membrane; mouth without teeth; three pair of branchiæ beneath the throat : pectoral fins small; dorsal extending completely along the back: caudal short, with spiny rays; body very long and compressed. There is only one species of this wonderful genus, which was first described towards the close of the last century.

S. chordatus is a native of the West India seas, and is nearly three feet in length, including the process at the end of the tail, which is about twenty inches. For a minute description of this singular animal, which was taken swimming near the surface of the water, between Cuba and Martinique, the “Linnæan Transactions,"

or "Naturalist's Miscellany," may be con. sulted with satisfaction.

STYLUS, in botany, the slender part of the pistillum, resembling a pillar, which stands upon the seed-bud, and elevates the stigma. The number of styles, gene. rally speaking, is equal to that of the seed-buds, each seed-bud being furnished with its own particular style. The style either falls with the other parts of the flower, or accompanies the fruit to maturity.

STYPTIC, in pharmacy, medicines which, by their astringent qualities, stop hæmorrhages.

STYRAX, in botany, storax, a genus of the Decandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Bicornes. Guaiacana, Jussieu. Essential character: calyx inferior; corolla funnel-form; drupe twoseeded. There are four species, the most remarkable of which is the S. benzoin, benzoin storax, or benjamin tree, as it is corruptly called, is of quick growth, rising to a considerable height: it is deemed, in Sumatra, which is its native country, to be of sufficient age in six years, or when the trunk is about seven or eight inches in diameter, to afford the benzoin; the bark is then cut through longitudinally, at the beginning of the principal lower branches, from which the drug exudes in a liquid state, and by exposure to the sun and air soon concretes, when it is scraped off from the bark with a knife or chissel. The quantity which one tree affords never exceeds three pounds; nor are the trees found to sustain the effects of these annual incisions longer than ten or twelve years. The benzoin which issues first from the wounded bark is the purest, being soft, extremely fragrant, and very white; that which is less esteemed is of a brownish colour, hard, and mixed with various impurities. In Arabia, Persia, and other parts of the east, the coarser sort is consumed in fumigating and perfuming the temples, and in destroying insects.

SUBALTERN, a subordinate officer, or one who discharges his post under the command, and subject to the direction, of another such are lieutenants, sub-lieutenants, cornets, and ensigns, who serve under the captain; but custom has now appropriated the term to those of much lower rank, as serjeants and the like. We also say subaltern courts, jurisdictions, &c. such are those of inferior lords, with regard to the lord paramount; hundred courts, with regard to county courts, &c.

SUBCONTRARY position, in geometry is when two similar triangles are so placed

as to have one common angle at the vertex, and yet their bases not parallel.

SUBDUPLE ratio, is when any number or quantity is contained in another twice: thus 3 is said to be subduple of 6, as 6 is duple of 3.

SUBDUPLICATE ratio, of any two quantities, is the ratio of their square roots. This is the opposite to the duplicate, which is the ratio of the squares: thus, if the quantities be a and b, the duplicate ratio is a b2; but the subduplicate ratio is ✔a: ✔b.

SUBER, or SUBERIC acid, in chemistry. The vegetable substance denoted by the name of suber is the epidermis, or outer covering of trees. This substance is analogous to common cork, which is the epidermis of the quercus suber, from which the name of this peculiar vegetable substance is derived. It is a light, soft, elastic substance, is insoluble in water, but readily absorbs this liquid. Common cork is the same substance, having greater density, and accumulated in greater quantity. This matter is very combustible, and burns with a white, vivid flame, leaving behind a very black, light, voluminous, coaly matter. When this matter is distilled, it yields ammonia. When cork is treated with nitric acid, carbonic acid gas and nitrous gas are evolved. The cork is decomposed, and converted, -partly into a yellow, soft, unctuous matter, which swims on the surface, and partly into suberic acid; the nature and properties of which have been already described. See СORK, where will be found an account of the SUBERIC acid, SUBERATES, &c.

SUBLIMATION, in chemistry, a process by which certain volatile substances are raised by heat, and again condensed by cold into a solid form. Thus, sulphur exposed to heat in close vessels, is volatilized or sublimed in the form of very white powder, known by the name of "flowers of sulphur." The formation of soot in our chimneys is another instance of sublimation. Benzoin, sublimated, gives flowers of benzoin, a very beautiful substance, which is now more properly called benzoic acid. Sublimation may be performed, in many cases, with common flasks: thus, if a small quantity of sal ammoniac is put into a flask, and heat applied to is, the entire salt arises in the form of white smoke, and condenses in the upper part of the flask, in the form of minute crystalline particles, which is a sublimate.

SUBLIME, in discourse, is defined by Boileau, to be something extraordinary

and surprising, which strikes the soul, and makes a sentiment or composition ravish and transport.

Longinus makes five sources of the sublime: the first, a certain elevation of the mind, which makes us think happily: the second is the pathetic, or that natural vehemence and enthusiasm which strikes and moves us; these two are wholy owing to nature, and must be born with us; whereas the rest depend partly on art : the third is the turning of figures in a certain manner, both those of thoughts and of speech: the fourth, nobleness of expression; which consists of two parts, the choice of words, and the elegant figurative diction; the fifth, which includes all the rest, is the composition and arrangement of the words in all their magnificence and dignity.

SUBMULTIPLE, in geometry, &c. A submultiple number, or quantity, is that which is contained a certain number of times in another, and which, therefore, repeated a certain number of times, be comes exactly equal thereto : thus 3 is a submultiple of 21; in which sense sub. multiple coincides with an aliquot part.

SUBMULTIPLE ratio, is that between the quantity contained and the quantity containing thus the ratio of 3 to 21 is submultiple. In both cases, submultiple is the reverse of multiple, 21, e. g. being a multiple of 3, and the ratio of 21 to 3 a multiple ratio.

SUBNORMAL, in geometry, a line which determines the point in the axis of a curve, where a normal, or perpendicular raised from the point of contact of a tangent to the curve, cuts the axis. Or the subnormal is a line which determines the point, wherein the axis is cut by a line falling perpendicularly on the tangent in the point of the contact.

SUBPOENA, is a writ, whereby all persons under the degree of peers are called into Chancery, in such case only where the common law fails, and has made no provision; so as the party, who in equity hath wrong, can have no other remedy by the rules and course of common law. It is, therefore, the commencement of a suit in equity. But the peers of the realm in such cases are called by the Lord Chancellor's or Lord Keeper's letters, giving notice of the suit intended against them, and requiring them to appear. There is also a subpana ad testificandum, or a subpoena to give evidence for the summoning the witnesses, as well in Chancery as other courts. There is also a subpœna in the Exchequer, as well in the court of

equity there, as in the office of pleas; which latter is a writ that does not require personal service, and is the commencement of a suit at common law there.

SUBSTANTIVE, in grammar, a noun, or name, considered simply and in itself, without any regard to its qualities, or other accidents, in contradistinction to the noun termed adjective, or that which expresses a certain quality or accident of the noun substantive. See GRAMMAR. SUBTRACTION. See ARITHMETIC and ALGEBRA.

SUBTANGENT of a curve, in the higher geometry, is the line which determines the intersection of the tangent with the axis; or that determines the point wherein the tangent cuts the axis prolonged. In any equation, if the value of the subtangent comes out positive, it is a sign that the points of intersection of the tangent and axis fall on that side of the ordinate where the vertex of the curve lies, as in the parabola and paraboloids: but if it comes out negative, the point of intersection will fall on the contrary side of the ordinate, in respect of the vertex, or beginning of the abscissa, as in the hyperbola and hyperboliform figures. And universally, in all paraboliform and hyperboliform figures the subtangent is equal to the exponent of the power of the ordinate, multiplied into the abscissa. See TANGENT.

SUBTENSE, in geometry, the same with the chord of an arch. Hence the subtense of an angle is a right line, supposed to be drawn between the two extremities of the arch that measures that angle.

SUBTRIPLE ratio, is when one number, or quantity, is contained in another three times: thus, 2 is said to be subtriple of 6, as 6 is triple of 2.

SUBULARIA, in botany, a genus of the Tetradynamia Siliculosa class and order. Natural order of Siliquosæ or Cruciformes Cruciferæ, Jussieu. Essential character: silicle entire, ovate; valves ovate, concave contrary to the partition; style shorter than the silicle. There is only one species, viz. S. aquatica, awl-wort, a native of the northern parts of Europe.

SUCCESSOR, in law, is he who follows or comes in another's place. An aggregate corporation, or body composed of many persons, may have a fee simple estate in succession without the word successors; and take goods and chattels in action or possession, and they shall go to the successors.

SUCCINATES. See SUCCINIC acid SUCCINIC acid, in chemistry, obtained from the decomposition of amber, was formerly called volatile salt of amber, and regarded as an alkaline salt. It was not till towards the end of the seventeenth century, that its acid properties were discovered. See AMBER.

The name of the acid is derived from succinum, the Latin name for amber. It may be obtained by the following process: Introduce a quantity of amber, in pow. der, into a retort, and let it be covered with dry sand. Adapt a receiver, and distil with a moderate heat in a sand bath. There passes over first a liquid, which is of a reddish colour, and afterwards a volatile acid salt, which crystallizes in small white or yellowish needles in the neck of the retort; and if the distillation be continued, a white, light oil succeeds, which becomes brown, thick, and viscid. The acid which is obtained in this way is contaminated with the oil; and therefore, to separate this oil, it may be dissolved in hot water, and passed through a filter, on which has been placed a little cotton moistened with oil of amber, which retains the oil, and prevents it from passing through along with the acid. The acid may then be evaporated and crystallized. The crystals are four-sided, rhomboidal plates, which, if pure, are white. Their taste is sour, and they redden an infusion of litmus. They are soluble in twenty-four parts of They are soluble also in alcohol. This cold water, but in much less of hot.

acid is volatile and inflammable: its base is a compound of carbon and hydrogen. It combines with the alkalies, earths, and metallic oxides, forming there with salts lize, as the succinate of potash, soda, lime called succinates. Most of these crystal&c. but the succinate of magnesia will not crystallize, but by evaporation forms a viscid mass. The metallic succinates are likewise soluble and crystallizable.

SUCCULENTE, in botany, the name of the thirteenth order in Linnæus's Fragments of a Natural Method, consisting of flat, fleshy, succulent plants, of which the greater part is evergreen: among these are the cactus, Indian fig; sedum, lesser house leak; and the saxifrage.

SUCTION, the act of sucking or draw. ing up a fluid, as air, water, milk, or the like, by means of the mouth and lungs. There are many effects vulgarly attributed to suction, which, in reality, have very different causes. As when any one sucks water, or any other liquor, up

« PreviousContinue »