This plant of Linnéus is sometimes directed for medicinal purposes in the cure of phthisical complaints; made into a poultice, by boiling the leaves and adding some oil, it forms an excellent emollient. As an article of food it may be considered as similar to cabbage and other oleraceous plants.

2. S. fera. Wild spinach. Producing its fruit on peduncles. A native of Siberia. SPINAL. 8. (spina, Lat.) Belonging to be back bone.

SPINAL MARROW. See MEDULLA SPINALIS.

SPINALIS CERVICIS, in anatomy. This muscle, which is situated close to the vertebræ at the posterior part of the neck and upper part of the back, arises, by distinct tendons, from the transverse processes of the five or six uppermost vertebræ of the back, and, ascending obliquely under the complexus, is inserted, by small tendons, into the spinous processes of the sixth, fifth, fourth, third, and second vertebræ of the neck.

Its use is to extend the neck obliquely backwards.

SPINALIS DORSI, in anatomy. This is the name given by Albinus to a tendinous and Meshy mass, which is situated along the spinous processes of the back and the inner side of the longissimus dorsi.'

It arises tendinous and fleshy from the spi nous processes of the uppermost vertebræ of the loins, and the lowermost ones of the back, and is inserted into the spinous processes of the nine uppermost vertebræ of the back.

Its use is to extend the vertebræ, and to assist in raising the spine.

SPINALONGA, a seaport of the island of Candia, with a good harbour and a citadel. It is situate near a cape of the same name, 30 miles E. of Candia. Lon. 25. 48 E. Lat. 35. 20 N.

SPINDLE. s. (spindl, spindel, Saxon.) 1. The pin by which the thread is formed, and on which it is conglomerated (Maine). 2. A long slender stalk (Mortimer). 3. Any thing alender: whence spindle shanks (Dryden).

SPINDLE, in geometry, a solid body generated by the revolution of some curve line about its base or double ordinate; in opposition to a conoid, which is generated by the rotation of the curve about its axis or absciss, perpendicular to its ordinate.

The spindle is denominated circular, ellip tie, hyperbolic, or parabolic, &c. according to the figure of its generating curve. See Hut. ton's Mensuration, in several places.

SPINDLE, in mechanics, sometimes denotes the axis of a wheel, or roller, &c.; and its ends are the pivots.

To SPINDLE. U. n. (from the noun.) To shoot into a long small stalk (Bacon). SPINDLESHANKED. a. (spindle and shank.) Having small legs (Addison). SPINDLE-SHAPED, in botany. See FUSI

FORM.

SPINDLE TREE. See EVONYMUS.

SPINDLE TREE (Bastard). See CELASTRUS SPINE. (from spina, thorn; so called from the spine-like processes of the vertebrae.) Spina dorsi. Columna spinalis. Columna verte. bralis. A bony column or pillar extending in the posterior part of the trunk from the great occipital foramen to the sacrum. It is composed of twenty-four bones called vertebræ, The cavity that runs down the middle, and which contains the spinal marrow, is called the specus or theca vertebralis. See VERTEBRE and ANATOMY.

SPINELL, in mineralogy, a species of ruby, of a rose-red hue, and generally distinguished by the name of balais, or balass ruby. It is the gemma spinellus of Gmelin's edition of Linnéus. See GEMMA.

This stone, which is usually obtained from the island of Ceylon, is usually crystallized. The form of its integrant particles is the tetrahedron. The primitive form of its crystals is a regular octahedron, composed of two foursided pyramids applied base to base, each of the sides of which is an equilateral triangle. In some cases two opposite sides of the pyramids are broader than the other two; and sometimes the edges of the octahedron are wanting, and narrow faces in their place. For figures and descriptions of these and other varieties of these crystals, the reader is referred to Romé de Lisle and the abbé Estner. It occurs also in tetrahedrons, in rhomboids whose faces have angles of 120° and 60°, in rhomboidal dodecahedrons, and in four-sided prisms terminated by four-sided pyramids.

The texture of the spinell is foliated. Fracture conchoidal. Its lustre is 3. Transparency 2 to 4. It causes a single refraction. Hardness 13. Specific gravity 3.570 to 3.695. Colour red, of various shades: sometimes also blue, green, and yellow. The constituents of the spinell are, according to

Vauquelin, 86.00 alumina 8.50 magnesia 5.25 chronic acid

99.76

Klaproth, 76 alumina 16 silica

8 magnesia 1.5 oxyd of iron

101.5

There is another species of spinell which has lately much engaged the attention of the mineralogists, and which has been denominated, by the abbé Haŭy, pleonast spinell. This, which may be regarded as a brown gar-. net or schoerl in truncated dodecahedrons of Romé de Lisle, was originally found in the island of Ceylon, among tourmalines and other crystalline substances, with which it was confounded. Delamétherie first made a distinct species of it under the name of ceylanite. Sometime afterward he found it in rocks thrown up by Vesuvins. Mr. Lhermina subsequently observed it in the same rocks and Mr. Lewis Cordier lately obtained it from almost all the volcanic rocks in the environs of Closterlach on the borders of the Rhine. Draparnaud mentions pleonast in the breccia of

the little basaltic mountain of Montferrier: in fact it is met with there in a tufa, that has the form of a breccia. "I have nevery et found it," says M. Marcel de Serres, " in a b. eccia, but like those that came from Ceylon, which are most commonly in amorphous or rounded masses, that have experienced a commencement of alteration. Perhaps this word is too strong to mark the state in which this substance is found, for it appears too hard to alter easily; ; yet its colour is so dull that it appears to be altered."

Apparently the pleonast is a very accidental mixture in the breccia: a few of the crystals, detached from the rocks in which they were contained, have been united to the various surrounding substances by some cement. Crystallized pleonast rubies are found likewise in the bottom of the gullies at the foot of the little mountain of Montferrier, and almost always on the surface of the Detritus of the surrounding substances.

A totally different situation, where this substance equally presents itself, and in pretty large quantity, is at Soret, on the left bank of the Lez, about a mile from Montpellier. It is found on the surface of a sand mixed with shells and bowldered quartz. This sand rests on strata of sandstone, and very various and heterogeneous agglomerations of the same nature. Sometimes these strata are covered by others of shelly limestone, filled chiefly with the oyster, cockle, and acorn shell. The oysters frequently contain others, which appear to have grown in their cavity. The strata of sandstone are very irregular, most frequently horizontal, and containing numerous concretions of sandstone, in the shape of pears, apples, and tears, almost always in the same position; which indicates that these concretions were not formed in the manner of common stalactites, but as the nodules of silex. It appears evident, that the pleonasts occur in them accidentally, and were brought thither by the waters. Some have been since found in the volcanic hill of Valmahargues, 6 kil. (3 miles) north of Montpellier; and likewise in a stratum of basaltic tufa 3 kil. (15 furlongs) long, at the bottom of a hill called lou Haout, or lou Náout, near Prades, on the north-east of Montferrier.

A question, by no means uninteresting, that naturally presents itself, is, whether the pleonast ruby be a volcanic product or not. From its hardness it might be presumed that it is altogether foreign to the lavas, and formed in the humid way, anterior to its deposition in the strata where it is found. It may be said, that none has yet been seen in the lava of the Vivarais, Auvergne, Etna, the Lipari islands, Iceland, or the Isle of France; but only in the cavities of some rocks of Vesuvius, Somma, Closterlach, and Campania. Hence we have sufficient reason to believe, that it belongs to the primitive rocks, and that to see it intimately united with the tourmalines of Ceylon is sufficient to convince us of this.

Brongniart however is of opinion, that this mineral, as well as the telesia, or corundum, belongs to the secondary trap formation. His opinion is founded perhaps upon that of Werner; who judges from the nature of the strata, of which the sand containing corundums appears to be the remains, that those of a hardness much superior to the pleonast must belong to that formation. Thus as basaltes and basaltic tufa are rocks of the secondary trap mountains, and these are met with in the places where the pleonast is found, this opinion appears to have some probability: but as we have not yet any accurate description of the mineralogical situation of the corundums; and as the adamantine spar is found in granite rocks, entering even into their composition in the same manner as feldspar; we may consider. the corundum, adamantine spar, and pleonast, as belonging exclusively to the primitive formations. This opinion however can rank only as a probability, till we have a precise know ledge of the mineralogical situation of these interesting substances.

SPINELLANE, a gem lately discovered by M. Nose, and described by him in a paper introduced into vol. Ixix. of the Journal de Phy sique, on the mineralogy of the mountains of the Rhine. He found it on the banks of the lake of Laach, near Andernach. It is in a rock composed of various substances, as oxyd of iron, quartz, hornblende, mica, and some other substances, to which he has given peculiar names, such as,

1. A variety of tabular feldspar, which he calls sanidin;

2. Another substance, crystallized in small silky tufts, which he calls desmin.

The spinellane has a brownish colour. Its form appears to be that of a hexaedral prism, terminated by triedral pyramids with rhomboidal faces.

Mr. Nose however imagines, that he has observed a great many points of resemblance between it and the balass ruby, or spinelle, whence he has been led to give it the name of spinellane.

It does not rank very high in point of hardness, but is sufficiently hard to scratch glass.

SPINESCENT. Spinescens. In botany, becoming hard and thorny. Incident to petioles and stipules.

SPINET. (from the Latin.) A stringed. musical instrument formerly much in use, somewhat similar to the harpsichord, and, like that, consisting of a case, sounding-board, keys, jacks, and a bridge. The difference of the spinet and harpsichord is, that the latter is larger, and contains two or three sets of jacks and strings so disposed and tuned as to admit of a variety of stops, while the former has only one set of jacks and strings, and consequently only one stop.

When the spinet was first brought into use, though its invention was certainly anterior to that of the harpsichord, is not exactly known. But that it is derived from the harp is evident

from its character as well as construction, internal and external: and, indeed, it was originally called the couched harp, though since denominated spinet, from its quills, which resemble thorns, called in Latin spina.

SPINIFEROUS. a. (spina and fero, Lat.) Bearing thorns.

SPINIFEX, in botany, a genus of the class polygamia, order dioecia. Calyx, glume twovalved, two-flowered; the valves parallel to the rachis; corol, glume two-valved, awnless; stamens three; styles two; seed one, One species only, an East Indian grass with large glaucous culms; leaves crowded at the joints, spinous at the end.

SPINNER. s. (from spin.) 1, One skilled in spinning (Graunt). 2. A garden spider with long jointed legs (Shakspeare).

SPINNING, the act of reducing silk, flax, hemp, hair, wool, or other matter, into thread. Spinning is either performed on the wheel, or with a distaff and spindle, or with other machines proper for the several kinds of working. Hemp, flax, nettle-thread, and other like vegetable matters, are to be wetted in spinning: silks, wools, &c. are spun dry, at least they do not stand in need of water: there is, however, a way of spinning or reeling silk as it comes off the cases or balls, where hot, or even boiling, water is to be used. The vast variety and importance of these branches of our manufactures, which are produced from cotton, wool, and flax, spun into yarn, together with the cheapness of provisions, and the low price of labour, in many foreign countries, which are the rivals of our trade, have occasioned many attempts at home to render spinning more easy, cheap, and expeditious. Sir R. Arkwright has carried the invention to a high degree of perfection. He not only contrived methods for spinning cotton, but obtained a patent for making cotton, flax, and wool, into yarn. See COTTON, &c.

SPINNING WHEEL. s. (from spin.) The wheel by which, since the disuse of the rock, the thread is drawn (Gay).

SPINOSITY. s. (spinosus, Lat.) Crabbedness; thorny or briary perplexity (Glanville). SPINOUS. a. (spinosus, Lat.) Thorny; full of thorns.

SPINOZA (Benedict de), the son of a Portuguese Jew settled at Amsterdam, where he was born in 1633. He commenced philosopher early in life; publicly embraced Christianity, for which the Jews attempted to assas sinate him; and in the end made a great noise in the world by his atheistical principles and writings. He was probably the first who reduced atheism to a system; but in other respects his doctrine was the same with that of several philosophers both ancient and modern. He retired into the country that he might not be interrupted in his speculations, and was sometimes three months without going out of his lodgings. This retired life did not hinder bis name from spreading. The free-thinkers came to him from all parts. The palatine count offered him the place of professor of phi

losophy at Heidelberg; but he refused it." He died at the Hague in 1677, aged about 44 years. He is said to have been honest, obliging, and very regular in his morals; which we need not be more surprised at than to see people live an irregular life though mentally persuaded of the truths of the gospel.

SPINOZISM, or SPINOSISM, the doctrine of Spinoza, or atheism and pantheism proposed after the manner of Spinoza.

SPI'NSTER. s. (from spin.) 1. A woman that spins (Shakspeare). 2. (In law.) The general term for a girl or maiden woman (Swift).

SPI'NSTRY. s. (from spinster.) The work of spinning.

SPINTHERE, a mineral discovered by the abbé Haüy imbedded in calcareous spar from Dauphiné. Colour greenish; found crystallized in irregular dodecahedrons composed of a double four-sided pyramid, obliquely truncated at the apexes. The crystals are very small and brightly shining; fracture lamellar; hardness inferior to that of glass; translucent on the edges: melts before the blow-pipe without much difficulty. It has not been analysed.

SPINY. a. (spina, Lat.) Thorny; briary; perplexed; difficult (Digby).

SPIO, in zoology, a genus of the class vermes, order mollusca. Body projecting from a tube, jointed and furnished with dorsal fibres; peduncles or feet rough with bristles and placed towards the back; feelers two, long, simple; eyes two, oblong. Two species, as follows.

1. S. seticornis. Feelers thin and striate. Inhabits the ocean, principally where there is a clayey bottom; about three inches long; the tube composed of agglutinated particles of earth, thin, erect, and thrice as long as the body: from this the animal projects its capillary white feelers in search of food, which consists of small marine worms; body whitish with a tinge of green, and a red line down the middle of the back, the hind-part sea-green; the fore-part blackish-grey with transverse white striæ; head pale.

2. S. filicornis. Feelers thick and annulate. Inhabits the seas about Greenland; an inch long. Body oblong, yellowish or reddish, with a cinereous line in the middle and at each end; tube fragile, erect, greenish, from which it projects its feelers in search of planaria and other small marine worms.

SPIREA, in botany, a genus of the class. icosandria, order pentagynia. Calyx five-cleft; petals five; capsules superior, two-valved, inany-seeded. Twenty-two species; the greater number shrubby, the rest harbaceous; chiefly natives of Europe and North America; three or four common to our own country.

The following are cultivated.

1. S. salicifolia. Willow-leaved spiræa; of which not less than four varieties are found wild in our wet woods.

2. S. tomentosa. Scarlet spiræa.

3. S. hypericifolia. Hypericum-leaved spi

5. S. chiamadrifolia. Germander-leaved spiræa.

6. S. crenata. Hawthorn-leaved spiræa. 7. S. triloba. Three-lobe-leaved spiræa. 8. S. opulifolia. Currant-leaved spiraa. 9. S. serbifolia. Service-leaved spiræa. 10. S. aruncus. Goat's-beard spiræa. 11. S. filipendula. Common dropwort. Found wild in our pastures.

12. S. ulmaria. Meadow-sweet. Queen of the meadow. Found wild in our meadows.

13. S. trifoliata. Three-leaved spiræa. All the shrubby sorts may be propagated by cuttings, suckers, or layers. The herbaceous may be increased by seeds or parting the roots. The double-flowered can only be preserved by the

last method.

SPIREA (African). See DIOSMA. SPIRACLE.s. (spiraculum, Lat.) A breathing hole; a vent; a small aperture (Wood ward).

SPIRAL. a. (from spira, Lat.) Curve; winding; circularly involved (Blackmore).

SPIRAL, in geometry, a curve line of the circular kind, which, in its progress, recedes always more and more from a point within, called its centre; as in winding from the vertex of a cone down to its base.

There are various kinds of spirals; as the Archimedean spiral, the logarithmic spiral, the proportional spiral, the loxodromic spiral, &c. of which some lie entirely on one plane, others run along the curve surface of a solid, as is the case with the loxodromic.

SPIRAL, in architecture and sculpture, denotes a curve that ascends, winding about a cone, or spire, so that all the points of it conzinually approach the axis.

By this it is distinguished from the helix, which winds in the same manner about a cylinder.

For the mathematical disquisitions respecting the nature and properties of spirals, see the treatises at the end of Emerson's and Robertson's Conics; and the several treatises on Fluxions by Simpson, Dealtry, &c.

SPIRALLY. ad. In a spiral form (Ray), SPIRE. s. (spira, Latin.) 1. A curve line; any thing wreathed or contorted; a curl; a twist; a wreath (Dryden). 2. Any thing growing up taper; a round pyramid; a steeple Hale). 3. The top or uppermost point (Shak speare).

To SPIRE. v. n. (from the noun.) 1. To shoot up pyramidically (Mortimer). 2. To breathe: not in use (Spenser).

SPIRE, a bishopric of Germany, in the circle of Upper Rhine, 50 miles in length, and 30 in breadth, where broadest. It is divided into two parts by the Rhine, and is a fertile country.

SPIRE, a free imperial city of Germany, capital of a bishopric of the same name. It was burnt by the French in 1689; and, in 1693, the imperial chamber, which was in this city, was removed to Wetzlar. It was taken, in 1792, by the French, who evacuated it the next year, but re-entered it in 1794. It

is seated on the W. side of the Rhine, 7 miles N. of Philipsburg. Lon. 8. 32 E. Lat. 49. 19 N.

SPIREBACH, a town of Germany, in the palatinate of the Rhine, seated on a river of the same name, 8 miles N. of Landau. Lon. 8. 12 E. Lat. 49. 20 N.

SPÍRICS, the name given by Cittacus, an ancient Persian geometer, to the curves arising from the circumvolution of a circle, not about one of its diameters, but about any line whatever, situated either within or out of the circle. Some of these curves possess singular properties; but we cannot descant upon them here. The scientific reader may consult Montucla's Histoire des Mathematiques, tome iii. pp. 90,

93.

SPIRIT. s. (spiritus, Latin.) 1. Breath; wind (Bacon). 2. An immaterial substance (Davies). 3. The soul of man (Shakspeare). 4. An apparition (Luke). 5. Temper; habitual disposition of mind (Tillotson). 6. Ardour; courage; elevation; vehemence of mind (Shakspeare). 7. Genius; vigour of mind (Temple). 8. Turn of mind; power of mind, moral or intellectual (Cowley). 9. Intellectual powers distinct from the body (Clarendon). 10. Sentiment; perception (Shakspeare). 11. Eagerness; desire (South). 12. Man of activity; man of life, fire, and enterprise (Shakspeare). 13. Persons distinguished by qualities of the mind (Dryden). 14. That which gives vigour or cheerfulness to the mind (Shakspeare). 15. Characteristical likeness; essential quali ties (Wotton). 16. Any thing eminently pure and refined (Shakspeare). 17. That which hath power or energy (South). 18. An inflammable liquor raised by distillation; as, brandy, rum (Boyle). 19. In the old poets, spirit was a monosyllable, and often written sprite, or less properly spright (Spenser).

SPIRIT is used for any incorporeal being, or intelligence. In which sense God is said to be a spirit; angels are spirits; and the devil is an evil spirit.

In this sense the human soul is also called a spirit, from its thinking and reflecting powers, which cannot be conceived to reside in any thing material. See SOUL.

F. Malebranche observes, it is extremely difficult to conceive what it is that should make the communication between the body and the spirit; for if the spirit have no material parts, it cannot move the body. But the argument must be false some how or other; for we believe that God can move bodies, although we do not attribute any material parts to him. We may conceive, without much stress to the imagination, that when two substances of contrary natures, an active and an inactive one (according to the essential distinction between matter and spirit) are joined together in a state of union, they should so affect each other, that the whole compound should neither appear perfectly dead, nor perfectly living; which is the very appearance we make and that, as the one or the other principle prevailed, the compound should seem to partake of that na

ture. This is not hard to conceive generally, although the formal method how they may affect each other may not be conceivable by us. All this is very ingeniously illustrated by Andrew Baxter, in his Enquiry into the Natore of the Human Soul, in various parts. He shews clearly that all the difficulty in the mutual action of matter and spirit upon each other, is to be found in the motion of a clock; that matter because divisible cannot think; and that that which wills in us must be immaterial. Indeed it must be obvious to any one who possesses the capability, and will be at the pains to trace things to their causes, or to endeavour to explain phænomena, that there must be something essentially distinct from matter, something that is not necessarily inert, something whose distinguishing property is opposite to inertiæ; that something, whatever it be, is spirit.

SPIRIT, in theology, is used, by way of eminence, for the third person in the holy trinity, called the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost.

The Socinians deny the personality of the spirit; and the Arians his co-equality with the father.

SPIRIT (Order of the). See HOLY GHOST. SPIRIT, is also used, among divines, for the divine power, and virtue, and the communication thereof to men.

In this sense the Spirit is said to have gone out on the face of the deep, Gen. i. 2. and the prophets to have been possessed with the spirit of God. Providence, in this sense, is that universal spirit whereby God makes all nature

to act.

Thus the Holy Virgin, is said to have conceived of the Spirit.

SPIRIT (Private), is a term that made a great figure in the controversies of the two last centuries. It signifies the particular sense or notion each person has of the dogmata of faith, and the truths of religion, as suggested by his own thoughts, and the persuasion he is under with regard to them.

The first reformers denying strenuously any infallible interpreter of the scripture, or any setled judge of controversies, maintained, that every person was to interpret and judge of revealed truths by his own light, assisted by the grace of God; and this was what they called private spirit, or judgment.

Against this, the arguments used by the Romanists are, that revealed truths being one and the same for all believers; the rule God has given us for judging of them ought to represent them to us uniformly, and the same; but the private spirit informs Luther one way, and Zuinglius another. It divides Oecolampadius, Bucer, Osiander, &c. And the doctrine it discovers to the confessionites is quite different from that it shews the anabaptists and mentonites, in the very same passage of scripture.

SPIRIT, (spiritus), is also used, in prosody, to signify the greater or less degree of breath

employed in the pronunciation of the initia Greek vowels, and of the letter p.

To SPIRIT. v. a. 1. To animate or actuate as a spirit (Milton). 2. To excite; to ani mate; to encourage; to invigorate to action (Swift). 3. To draw; to entice (Brown). SPIRITALLY. ad. (from spiritus, Latin.) By means of the breath (Holder). SPIRITED. a. (from spirit.) Lively; vivacious; full of fire (Pope).

SPÍRITEDNESS. s. (from spirited.) Disposition or make of mind (Addison). SPIRITFULNESS. s. (from spirit and full.) Sprightliness; liveliness (Harvey). SPIRITLESS. a. (from spirit.) Dejected; low; deprived of vigour ; depressed (Smith). SPIRITOSO, in music. With spirit. SPIRITOUS. a. (from spirit.) 1. Re fined; defecated; advanced near to spirit (Milton). 2. Fine; ardent; active.

SPIRITOUSNESS. s. (from spiritous. Fineness and activity of parts (Boyle).

SPIRITUAL. a. (spirituel, French, from spirit.) 1. Distinct from matter; immaterial; incorporeal (Bacon). 2. Mental; intellectual (South). 3. Not gross; refined from external things; relative only to the mind (Calamy). 4. Not temporal; relating to the things of heaven; ecclesiastical (Swift).

SPIRITUALITY. s. (from spiritual.y 1. Incorporeity; immateriality; essence distinct from matter (Raleigh). 2. Intellectual nature (South). 3. Acts independent of the body; pure acts of the soul; mental refinement (South). 4. That which belongs to any one as an ecclesiastic (Ayliffe).

SPIRITUALTY. s. (from spiritual.) Ecclesiastical body: not in use (Shakspeare). SPIRITUALIZATION, s. (from spiria tualize.) The act of spiritualizing.

To SPIRITUALIZE. v. a. (spiritualiser, Fr.) To refine the intellect; to purify from the feculencies of the world (Rogers).

SPIRITUALLY. ad. (from spiritual.) Without corporeal grossness; with attention to things purely intellectual (Taylor).

SPIRITUOUS. a. (spiritueux, French.) 1. Having the quality of spirit, tenuity and activity of parts (Arbuthnot). 2. Lively; gay; vivid; airy (Wolton).

SPIRITUOSITY. SPIRITUOSNESS. S. (from spirituous.) The quality of being spirituous; tenuity and activity.

SPIRITS (Distilled). Inflammable liquors obtained by distillation from a variety of substances that have passed into the vinous fermentation. The process by which these are procured in their most perfect state forms an important branch of chemistry; and the liquors themselves an important branch of political revenue.

The substances chiefly employed are the fruit saccharine matter of the sugar-cane, which yields of the vine, from which is obtained brandy; the rum; and barley or other grain, which gives us all that variety which is known by the name of cornspirits, as whisky, geneva, and for the most part spirits of wine or alcohol.

The most important step in the production of