and all their bases form the surface of the sphere. And therefore the solid content of the sphere is equal to that of a pyramid whose altitude is the radius, and its base is equal to the surface of the sphere, that is, the solid content is equal to f of the product of its radius and surface. 2. A sphere is equal to of its circumscribing cylinder, or of the cylinder of the same height and diameter, and therefore equal to the cube of the diameter multiplied by .5236, or of .7854; or equal to double a cone of the same base and height. Hence also different spheres are to one another as the cubes of their diameters, and their surfaces as the squares of the same diameters. 3. The surface or superficies of any sphere is equal to four times the area of its great circle, or of a circle of the same diameter as the sphere. Or, 4. The surface of the whole sphere is equal to the area of a circle whose radius is equal to the diameter of the sphere. And, in like manner, the curve surface of any segment, whether greater or less than a hemisphere, is equal to a circle whose radius is the chord line drawn from the vertex of the segment to the circumference of its base, or the chord of half its arc. 5. The curve surface of any segment or zone of a sphere is also equal to the curve surface of a cylinder of the same height with that portion, and of the same diameter with the sphere. Also the surface of the whole sphere, or of a hemisphere, is equal to the curve surface of its circumscribing cylinder. And the curve surfaces of their corresponding parts are equal, that are contained between any two places parallel to the base. And consequently the surface of any segment or zone of a sphere is as its height or altitude. Most of these properties are contained in Archimedes's treatise on the sphere and cylinder. And many other rules for the surfaces and solidities of spheres, their segments, zones, frustums, &c. may be seen in Dr. Hutton's comprehensive Treatise on Mensuration. SPHERE (Armillary). See ARMILLARY. SPHERE of activity of a body, is the utmost space to which the influence of such body extends. SPHERE, in astronomy, that concave orb or expanse which appears to invest our globe, and in which the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, stars, planets, and comets, appear to be fixed at an equal distance from the eye. This is also called the sphere of the world; and it is the subject of spherical astronomy. This sphere, as it includes the fixed stars, from whence it is sometimes called the sphere of the fixed stars, is immensely great. So much so, that the diameter of the earth's orbit is vastly small in respect of it; and consequently the centre of the sphere is not sensibly changed by any alteration of the spectator's place in the several parts of the orbit: but still in all points of the earth's surface, and at all times, the inhabitants have the same appearance of the sphere; that is, the fixed stars seem to possess the same points in the surface of the sphereFor, our way of judging of the places, &c. of the stars, is to conceive right lines drawn from the eye, or from the centre of the earth, through the centres of the stars, and thence continued till they cut the sphere; and the points where these lines so meet the sphere are the apparent places of those stars. The better to determine the places of the heavenly bodies in the sphere, several circles are conceived to be drawn in the surface of it, which are called circles of the sphere. SPHERE, in geography, &c. denotes a certain disposition of the circles of the surface of the earth, with regard to one another, which varies in the different parts of it. The circles originally conceived on the surface of the sphere of the world are almost all transferred, by analogy, to the surface of the earth, where they are conceived to be drawn directly underneath those of the sphere, or in the same positions with them; so that, if the planes of those of the earth were continued to the sphere of the stars, they would coincide with the respective circles on it. Thus, we have an horizon, meridian, equator, &c. on the earth. And as the equinoctial, or equator, in the heavens, divides the sphere into two equal parts, the one north and the other south, so does the equator on the surface of the earth divide its globe in the same manner. And as the meridians in the heavens pass through the poles of the equinoctial, so do those on the earth, &c. With regard then to the position of some of these circles in respect of others, we have a right, an oblique, and a parallel sphere. A right or direct sphere is that which has the poles of the world in its horizon, and the equator in the zenith and nadir. In an oblique sphere, the equator, as well as the axis, cuts the horizon obliquely. And in a parallel sphere, the poles are in the zenith and nadir, and the equator and all the parallels of latitude are parallel to the horizon. SPHERICAL. SPHE'RIC. q. (from sphere.) 1. Round; orbicular; globular (Keil). 2. Planetary; relating to the orbs of the planets (Shakspeare). See TRIGONO SPHERICAL TRIANGLE. METRY. SPHERICALLY. ad. In form of a sphere. SPHERICALNESS. SPHE'RICITY.S.(from sphere.) Roundness; rotundity; globosity (Digby). SPHERICS, the doctrine of the sphere, particularly of the several circles described on its surface; with the method of projecting the same on a plane. See PROJECTION OF THE SPHERE. SPHEROID, a solid body approaching to the figure of a sphere, though not exactly round, but having one of its diameters longer than the other. This solid is usually considered as generated. by the rotation of an oval plane figure about one of its axes. If that be the longer or transverse axis, the solid so generated is called an eblong spheroid, and sometimes prolate, which resembles an egg, or a lemon; but if the oval revolve about its shorter axis, the solid will be an oblate spheroid, which resembles an orange, and in this shape also is the figure of the earth, and the other planets. The capacity of a spheroid, whether prolate or oblate, is two thirds of that of its circumscribing cylinder. SPHEROID (Universal), a name given to the solid generated by the rotation of an ellipse about some other diameter, which is neither the transverse nor conjugate axis. This produces a figure resembling a heart. See Hutton's Mensuration, p. 352, 2d ed. SPHEROIDAL, or SPHEROIDICAL. as (from spheroid.) Having the form of a spheroid (Cheyne).. SPHE RULE. s. (sphærula, Latin.) A little globe (Cheyne). SPHEX. Savage. In zoology, a genus of the class insecta, order hymenoptera. Mouth with an entire jaw, the mandibles horny, incurved, toothed; lip horny, membranaceous at the tip; feelers four; antennas with about ten articulations; wings in each sex plane, incumbent, and not folded; sting pungent, and con cealed within the abdomen. This genus contains insects, perhaps the most fierce and rapacious of this class of beings. The savage, or ground bee, does not feed upon honey, or accommodate its young with that kind of provision. They attack insects much beyond their own size, and that whether they are defenceless or armed; for they are provided with strong jaws, and a sting poisoned with a liquor fatal to every animal they engage. The savage seizes boldly on the insect he attacks, and gives it a stroke of amazing force. After this first encounter, he falls down, as if he had himself received the mortal blow; but it is only to rest from his fatigue, and to observe the effects of his prowess. Presently the wounded animal dies; and while yet palpitating with life, the savage devours those organs which he finds most palatable, leaving the greater part entire. It is thus that the sphex riots in the blood of hundreds of insects; and his family is no sooner increased, than the carnage becomes proportioned to the number of young he has to support. After the female has deposited her eggs in the bottom of a cell dug in the ground, or in the mud wall of a cottage, the whole apartment is crammed with multitudes of living and dead insects, destined to be the food of the future progeny. Thus their houses, like the renowned caves of the giants, are strewed with dead. This operation is no sooner over, than the parent insects stop up the hole at the entrance of the cell, to prevent the escape of such of the wretched captives as may get be alive : and hence the young, when they leave their eggs, find themselves amply suppied with provision. They devour, one after another, all the carcases with which they are provided; and by the time their last fly is eaten, they have no longer occasion for food, but ate changed each into chrysalis, which after ward become savages of one species of another, according to that of the parent pair. The individuals belonging to the division B are found chiefly on umbellate plants; the larves without feet, soft, and inhabiting the body of some other insect, on whose juices it exists: the pupe has rudiments of wings. A hundred and twenty-nine species, scattered over the globe; seven common to our own country. They are thus subdivided: A. Antennas setaceous; lip entire, tongueless. The tribe evania of Fabricius. B. Antennas filiform; lip emarginate, with a bristle on each side; tongue inflected, trifid. &. Abdomen petiolate. 6. Abdomen sessile. The following may serve as examples. 1. S. spirifes. Turner savage. Of a chesnut brown, with a shade of blue; eyes large and black; antennas brown ; body ferruginous; thorax and abdomen connected together by a yellow thread; wings of a dusky brown, and sting yellow. Inhabits Europe and Egypt, in cylindric cavities, wrought within like a honey-comb, on the sides of cliffs, and on the mud-walls of cottages. It is found in our own country. 2. S. viatica. Black; slightly hairy; wings brown; fore part of the abdomen ferruginous with black bands; seizes and buries caterpil lars one by one in its cells, depositing at the same time an egg in each, and then closing them up. 3. S. sabulosa. Black and hairy; the se cond and third joints of the abdomen ferrugi nous. Inhabits sandy and gravelly places, in which the female digs holes with her fore-feet, pawing like a dog, in order to form cells for the deposit of caterpillars or spiders. Like the last she deposits one in each, and at the same time drops one of her own eggs, and fills up the opening. See Nat. Hist. Pl. CLXXVIII. SPHINCTER. (cpuyx7np, from speyfw, ta shut up.) The name of several muscles, whose office is to shut or close the aperture around which they are placed. SPHINCTER ANI. Sphincter externus of Albinus and Douglas. Sphincter cutaneus of Winslow. A single muscle of the anus, which shuts the passage through the anus into the rectum, and pulls down the bulb of the urethra, by which it assists in ejecting the urine and semen. It arises from the skin and fat that surround the verge of the anus on both sides, near as far as the tuberosity of the ischium; the fibres are gradually collected into an oval form, and surround the extremity of the rectum. It is inserted by a narrow point into the perineum, acceleratores urinæ, and transversi perinei; and behind into the extremity of the os coccygis, by an acute termination. S. ANI CUTANEUS. See SPHINCTER ANI. S. ANI EXTERNUS. See SPHINCTER ANI. S. ANI INTERNUS. Albinos and Douglas call the circular fibres of the muscular coat of the rectum which surround its extremity by this name, RIS ORIS. S. ORIS. See ORBICULARIS ORIS. S. VAGINE. A muscle which contracts the mouth of the vagina, and compresses its corpus cavernosum. SPHINCTER LABIORUM. See ORBICULA that of the zygana is thick, fat, and covered with short hairs; that of the sesia generally naked, unarmed, and thinner towards the head; the others have generally a sharp, stifi, erect horn behind. The pupe is quiescent; that of the zygæna folliculate, and a little tapering forwards; the rest naked and smooth; that of the sesia pointed at each end, of the others very obtuse behind. S. VESICE. Constrictor cunni of Albinus. Second muscle of the clitoris of Douglas. This muscle arises from the sphincter ani and from the posterior side of the vagina near the perineum; from thence it runs up the side of the vagirta, near its external orifice, opposite to the nymphæ, covers the corpus cavernosum, and is inserted into the crus and body or union of the crura clitoridis. Its use is to contract the mouth of the vagina. SPHINX, in fabulous history, a monster which had the head and breasts of a woman, the body of a dog, the tail of a serpent, the wings of a bird, the paws of a lion, and an human voice. It sprang from the union of Orthos with the Chimæra, or of Typhon with Echidna. The Sphinx had been sent into the neighbourhood of Thebes by Juno, to punish the family of Cadmus, and it raised continual alarms by proposing enigmas, and devouring the inhabitants if unable to explain them. The Thebans, however, were told by the oracle, that the Sphinx would destroy herself as soon as one of her enigmas was explained. In this enigma she wished to know what animal walked on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening. Upon this Creon, king of Thebes, promised his crown and his sister Jocasta in marriage to him who could deliver his country by a successfal explanation. It was at last happily explained by Edipus, who observed, that man walked on his hands and feet when young or in the morning of life, at the noon of life he walked erect, and in the evening of his days he supported his infirmities upon a stick. (Vide EDIPUS). The Sphinx no sooner heard this explanation than she dashed her head against a rock, and immediately expired. SPHINX. Hawk-moth. In zoology, a genus of the class insecta, order lepidoptera. Antennas somewhat prismatic, tapering at each end; tongue (in most) exserted; feelers two, reflected; wings deflected. A hundred and seventy-five species; thus divided into sections. A. Antennas scaly; feelers hairy; tongue spiral. B. Antennas cylindrical; tongue exserted, truncate; wings entire: forming the tribe sesia of Fabricius. C. Antennas thicker in the middle; tongue exserted, setaceous: the tribe zygæna of Fabricius. Of this genus about fifteen or sixteen inhabit our own country: the rest are scattered over the globe, and belong to different quar ters. They fly abroad only in the morning and evening, are very slow on the wing, and often make a humming kind of noise they extract the nectary of flowers with the tongue: the larve has sixteen feet, and is pretty active; The following species are chiefly worthy of notice. 1. S. ocellata. Wings angular, lower ones rufous, with a blue eye. Larve solitary, tailed, rough, green with oblique, lateral, pale stripes, and ocellate dots: pupe dark chesnut brown. Inhabits England and Europe generally on the willow; the larve retires under ground in order to submit to its change into the chrysalis state in the month of August or September, and in the following June appears a complete insect. 2. S. atropos. Wings entire; lower ones yellow, with two brown bands; abdomen yellow, with black belts. Larve solitary, tailed, yellow, dotted with black, and divided blue and green lateral transverse lines, tail reflected; pupe dark brown, with five black stigmata on each side. Both the insect and larve or caterpillar are highly beautiful: the latter is principally found on the potatoe and the jasmine, these plants being its favourite food. It usually changes into its pupe state in Septent ber, retiring for that purpose pretty deep beneath the surface of the earth: the complete insect emerging the following June or July. The most remarkable part of this insect is the representation of a death's head, which is seen upon the upper part of the thorax: this mournful picture is formed by a large irregular gray patch, marked with two black dots near the middle. In the province of Brittany the people were afflicted during a certain season with an epidemic disorder, which often proved mortal; the inhabitants were greatly alarmed by the unusual numbers of these insects, which the common people imagined came to forebode their destruction, by this portentous representation upon their backs. The Royal Academy was consulted, whether the sphinx, by its uncommon numbers, might not be the cause of this calamity, so great was the alarm which their appearance created. The sphinx atropos, when hurt, has the power of uttering a dismal and melancholy cry, like a mouse; owing, perhaps, to the viclent rubbing of some of its scaly members. 3. S. ligustri. Wings entire; lower ones rufous with three black bands; abdomen ted with black belts. Larve tailed, green, with oblique lateral streaks, flesh-colour before, and white behind; pupe brown, the tail fourtoothed. Found on privet, lilac, the poplar, and some other trees, in July and August; changes to its pupe state in September, retiring under ground for this purpose; and in the ensuing June emerging into the form of the com plete insect. 4. S. fillipendulæ. Upper wings oblong oval, dark shining green with blood-red spots; lower wings red with dark green edging. Larve pale yellow, with rows of squarish black spots, often seen feeding on various grasses and other meadow plants: does not retire under ground for its transformation, but incloses itself in an oval shining yellow web of silk, attached to a grass-spike. The complete insect emerges from the pupe in about three weeks, and is found on the drop-wort, whence its specific name. SPHONDÝ'LIUM. (medov, from Jes, vertebra; named from the shape of its root; or probably because it was used against the bite of a serpent, called mordung). This is supposed to be the branekursine. See BANCA CESINA. SPHYGMUS. SPHYXIS. (from pw, to leap.) The pulse: whence asphyxy, loss of pulsation; pulselessness; lifelessness. SPIAL.'s. (espial, French.) Á spy; a scout; a watcher: obsolete (Fairfax). SPICA. (from spes, hope; from sw, to extend; or from caxus, ol. for laxus, whence spicus, spica, and spicum; for it is used in all the three genders.) In botany, a spike.-Flores sessiles sparsim alterni in pedun culo communi simplici.-In Term. Bot. 461, sparsim is omitted.-A species of inflorescence, in which sessile flowers are (scatteringly) alter nate on a common simple peduncle.-As in an ear of wheat, rye, or barley; many of the grasses; in lavender, mullein, agrimony, &c, A spike is 1. Simple, distich, compound, glomerate. 2. Ovate, cylindric, ventricose, interrupted. 3. Imbricate, jointed, branching, oneranked, or secundine, linear, ciliate, leafy, bristle-shaped, comose or terminated with a bush of leaves, scariose. SPICA VIRGINIS, in astronomy, a star of the first magnitude in the constellation Virgo. SPICE, any kind of aromatic drug or condiment, that has hot and pungent qualities; as pepper, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, &c. SPICE (All). In botany. See PIMENTO and MYATUS. SPICE (Carolina All). See CALYCAN THUS. SPICE ISLANDS. See MOLUCCAS. To SPICE. v. a. (from the noun.) To season with spice (Donne). SPICER. s. (from spice.) One who deals in spice (Camden). SPICERY. s. (espiceries, French.) 1. The commodity of spices (Raleigh). 2. A repository of spices (Addison). SPICK and SPAN. Quite new; now first used. SPICKNEL or SPIGNEL. S. (meum.) The herb maldmony or bearwort. SPICOSITY. s. (spica, Latin.) The quality of being spiked like ears of corn; fulness of ears. SPICULA: A spicule or spikelet. A partal spike, or a subdivision of it: as in some grasses. SPICY. (from spice.) 1. Producing SPIELMANNIA, in botany, a genus of the class didynamia, order angiospermia. Calyx five-cleft; border of the corol five-cleft; the orifice closed with hairs; stigma hooked, drupe tubercled, with a two-celled nut. One species only, a shrub of the Cape, bearing divided into two equal hemispheres. SPIGELBURG, a town of Westphalia, capital of a county of the same name, 22 miles SW. of Hildesheim. Lon. 9. 46 E. Lat. 51. 56 N. SPIGELIA. Worm grass. In botany, a genus of the class pentandria, order monogynia. Corol funnel-form, capsule double, twocelled, many-seeded. Two species. 1. S. anthelmia. Stem herbaceous; upper leaves in fours; a native of the West Indies; and formerly employed as an anthelmintic in medicine, though probably inferior in strength to the next species. 2. S. marilandica. Perennial worm grass. Stem square, all the leaves opposite, sessile, entire; flowers large, spiked, swelling in the middle, deep-red. The whole of this plant, but most commonly the root, is employed as an anthelmintic by the Indians and inhabitants of America. Dr. Hope has written in favour of this plant, in continued and remitting low worm fevers: besides its property of destroying the worms in the primæ viæ, it acts as a purgative. Both these plants are still sold, in some places, as vermifuges, under the name of Indian pink. SPIGELIAN LOBE. See LIBER. SPIGNEL. See ATHAMANTA. SPIGOT. s. (spijcker, Dutch.) A pin or peg put into the faucet to keep in the liquor (Shakspeare). SPIKE. s. (spica, Latin.) 1. An ear of corn, &c. See SPICA. 2. A long nail of iron or wood; a long rod of iron sharpened (Addison). To SPIKE. v. a. 1. To fasten with long nails (Moxon). 2. To set with spikes (Wiseman). 3. To make sharp at the end. SPIKE (Oil of), a nanie sometimes given to essential oil of turpentine; an article much used by varnishers and painters. SPIKENARD. See NARDUS and BAC SPILL. s. (spijlen, Dutch.) 1. A small shiver of wood, or thin bar of iron (Mortimer). 2. A small quantity of money (Ayliffe). To SPILL. v. a. (rpillan, Saxon; spillen, Dutch.) 1. To shed; to lose by shedding (Daniel). 2. To destroy; to mischief (Davies). 3. To throw away (Tickel). To SPILL. v. n. 1. To waste; to be lavish (Sidney). 2. To be shed; to be lost by being shed (Watts). SPILLER. s. (We know not whence derived.) A kind of fishing line (Carew). SPILOMA, in botany, a tribe of the cryptogamic class LEPRARIA, which see. SPILSBY, a town in Lincolnshire, with a market on Monday, seated on the side of a hill, 30 miles E. of Lincoln, and 132 N. by E. of London. Lon. 0.7 E. Lat. 53. 12 N. SPILTH. s. (from spill.) Any thing poured out or wasted (Shakspeare). To SPIN. v. a. pret. spun or span, part. spun. (rpinnan, Saxon; spinnen, Dutch.) 1. To draw out into threads (Exodus) 2. To form threads by drawing out and twisting any filamentous matter (Dryden). 3. To protract; to draw out (Addison). 4. To form by degrees; to draw out tediously (Digby). 5. To put into a turning motion, as a boy's top. To SPIN. v. n. 1. To exercise the art of spinning, or drawing threads (More). 2. To stream out in a thread or small current (Drayton). 3. To move round as a spindle (Milton). SPINA ACIDA. See BERBERIS. SPINA BIFIDA. A tumour upon the spine of new born children immediately about the lower vertebræ of the loins, and upper parts of the sacrum; at first it is of a dark blue colour, but in proportion as it increases in size, approaches nearer and nearer to the colour of the skin, becoming perfectly diaphanous. From the surface of this tumour a pellucid watery fluid sometimes exudes, and this circumstance has been noticed by different authors. It is always attended with a weakness, or, more properly speaking, a paralysis of the lower extremities. The opening of it rashly has proved quickly fatal to the child. Talpius, therefore, strongly dissuades us from attempting this operation. Acrel mentions a case where a nurse rashly opened a tumour, which, as she described it, was a blood bag on the back of the child at the time of its birth, in bigness equal to a hen's egg, in two hours after which the child died. From the dissection it appeared that the bladder laid in the middle of the os sacrum, and consisted of a coat, and some strong membrane, which proceed from a long fissure of the bones. The extremity of the spinal marrow lay bare, and the spinal duct in the os sacrum was uncommonly wide, and distended by the pressure of the waters. Upon tracing it to the head, the brain was found nearly in its natural state, but the ventricles contained so much water that the infundibulum was quite distended with it, and the passage between the third and fourth ventricle was greatly enlarged. He likewise takes notice of another case, where a child lived about eight years labouring under this complaint, during which time it seemed to enjoy tolerable health, though pale. Nothing seemed amiss in him, but such a degree of debility as rendered him incapable to stand on his legs, The tumour, as in the former case, was in the middle of the os sacrum, of the bigness of a man's fist, with little discolouring; and upon pressing it became less. When opened it was found full of water, and the coats were the same as in the former, but the separation of the bones was very considerable. The spinal marrow, under the tumour, was as small as a pack thread, and rigid; but there were no morbid appearances in the brain. SPINA CERVINA. (so called from its thorns resembling those of the stag.) Rhamnus catharticus. Spina infectoria. Cervispina, Purging buckthorn. The fruit or berries of this shrub, rhamnus catharticus of Linnéus (rhamnus spinis terminalibus floribus quadrifidis dioicis, foliis ovatis, caule erecto. C. O. Pentandria, monogynia), have been long received into the materia medica: they contain a pulpy deep green juice, of a faint unpleasant smell, a bitterish, acrid, nauseous taste, which operate briskly by stool, producing thirst, dryness of the mouth and fauces, and severe gripings, unless some diluting liquor be drank plentifully after it: made into syrup, it is the officinal preparation, which at present is rarely prescribed except as a drastic purge. See RHAMNUS. SPINA INFECTORIA. VINA. See SPINA CER SPINA VENTOSA, in surgery, a tumour arising from an internal caries of a bone. It most frequently occurs in the carpus and tarsus, and is known by a continual pain in the bone, and a red swelling of the skin, which has a spongy feel. SPINACH, in botany. See SPINACHIA. SPINACH (Strawberry). See BLITUM. SPINACHIA. Spinage, or Spinach. In' botany, a genus of the class dioecia, order pentandria. Male: calyx five-parted; corolless. Fem.: calyx four-cleft; corolless; styles four; seed, one within the hardened calyx. Two species only. Fruit 1. S. oleracea. Garden spinach. sessile, unarmed, or prickly. Of this species there are several varieties cultivated in the kitchen-garden. The common spinach, intended for winter use, should be sown on an open spot of ground in the latter end of July, observing to do it, if possible, when the weather is rainy. When the young plants are come up, the weeds must be destroyed, and the plants left at about five inches asunder. The ground being kept clear of weeds, the spinach will be fit for use in October. The way of gathering it to advantage is only to take off the longest leaves, leaving those in the centre to grow larger: and at this rate a bed of spinach will furnish the table for the whole winter, till the spinach sown in spring is become fit for use, which is commonly in April. |