angle of the coverts of the gills, frequently a black spot, below it sometimes a purple one. In this species the teeth are covered with lips; and the back teeth are not so flat as in some others of the genus. There is but one dorsal fin, which stretches a considerable way along the back, and has twenty-four rays; the first eleven spinous, and the rest cartilaginous: the three former rays of the ventral fin are also spinous, the others soft: pectoral fins soft, terminating in acute angles: the tail has seventeen rays, and is much forked. It is caught abundantly in winter in the Mediterranean.

2. S. insidiator. Body red, yellowish at the sides; tail a little forked. Inhabits the Indian sea; ten inches long; catches aquatic insects like the chaetodon rostratus by its snout, which it can lengthen out into a tube; body broadish, fat, coated with large scales of a metallic green colour at the edge; when dead becomes brown; flesh eatable.

3. S. berda. Whitish-ash; lateral scales with each a transverse brown band in the middle; dorsal spines recumbent. Inhabits the Red sea; body oval; back gibbous, with obsolete bands, beneath white; scales broad, round, entire.

4. S. radiatus. Pudding-fish. Tail entire; lateral line composed of linear scales divided into three bifid branches. Inhabits Carolina : above green; purple at the sides, beneath rufous; head varied with blue, yellow and green streaks.

5. S. niger. Toothed gilt-head. Back black; sides brighter; belly silvery. Found, according to Mr. Pennant, in Yorkshire. SPASM. (spasmus, Enaoμoç, from Exacμa; , to draw.) A spasm or convulsion. An involuntary contraction of the muscular fibres, or that state of the contraction of muscles which is not spontaneously disposed to alternate with relaxation. When the contractions alternate with relaxation, which are frequently and preternaturally repeated, they are called convulsions. Spasms are distinguished by authors into clonic and tonic spasms. In clonic spasms, which are the true convulsions, the contractions and relaxations are alternate, as in epilepsy; but in tonic spasms, the member remains rigid, as in locked jaw. See CONVULSION and TONIC SPASM.

SPASMI. Spasmodic diseases. The third order of the class neuroses of Cullen; characterised by a morbid contraction or motion of muscular fibres.

SPASMODIC COLIC. See COLICA. SPASMOLOGY. (spasmologia, onasuonona, from ezagues, a spasm, and as, a discourse.) A treatise on convulsions.

SPASMUS CYNICUS. The spasmus cynicus, or sardonic grin, is a convulsive affection of the muscles of the face and lips on both sides, which involuntarily forces the muscles of those parts into a species of grinning distortion. If one side only be affected, the disorder is nominated tortura oris. When the masseter, buccinator, temporal, nasal, and labial muscles are involuntarily excited to action, or

contorted by contraction or relaxation, they form a species of malignant sneer. It sometimes arises from eating hemlock, or other acrid poisons, or succeeds to an apoplectic stroke."

SPAT. The preterit of spit."

SPATH, in botany, the calyx of a spadix, opening or bursting longitudinally, in form of a sheath. It is applied also to the calyx of some flowers which have no spadix; as narcissus, crocus, iris, &c.

A spathe may be one-valved, or two-valved. Halved. Dimidiata. Investing the fructi fication on the inner side only. Imbricate. One-flowered, two-flowered, &c.-Hence

SPATHACEÆ. The name of the eighth order in Linnéus's Fragments; and of the ninth in his Natural Orders.

SPATHELIA, in botany, a genus of the class pentandria, order trigynia. Calyx fiveleaved; petals five; capsule three-sided, threecelled; seeds solitary. One species only, spathelia simplex, maiden plum-tree; a tree of Jamaica with a single stem, and flowers in a pyramidal, terminal spike.

To SPA'TIATE. v. n. (spatior, Lat.) To rove; to range; to ramble at large (Bentley). To SPATTER. v. n. (rpat, spit, Saxon.) 1. To sprinkle with dirt, or any thing offensive (Addison). 2. To throw out any thing offensive (Shakspeare). 3. To asperse; to. defame.

To SPA'TTER. v. n. To spit; to sputter as. at any thing nauseous taken into the mouth (Milton).

SPATTERDASHES. s. (spatter and dash.) Coverings for the legs by which the wet is kept off.

SPATLING POPPY. s. White behen (Miller).

SPATULA. s. A spattle or slice, used by apothecaries and surgeons in spreading plasters, or stirring medicines (Quincy).

SPATULATE LEAF, in botany, a spatula-shaped leaf. Cujus figura subrotunda, basi angustiore lineari elongata. Roundish, with a long, narrow, linear base: like a spatula or a battledore: as in cistus incanus.

SPATUM, in mineralogy, a genus of the class earths, order calcareous. Consisting of carbonat of lime, a larger proportion of carbonic acid gass, and water; lamellous, shining, parasitical, soft, lightish, breaking into rhomboidal fragments; crackling in the fire. Twenty-three species, which may be thus subdivided.

A. Of a common figure; comprising three species.

1. S. opacum. Common spar. Calcareous spar. Sometimes opake or nearly so; some- › times with irregular fragments; more gene-, rally with a variable lustre. Found in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, and Hungary, most commonly white, sometimes cinereous, blueish, greenish, yellowish, red, or blackish. One variety changes its lustre with respect to its position in the light.

2. S. arenarium. Diaphonous, with the foliations irregularly clustered. Found in Sweden and Saxony, white, grey, red, brown, or green.

3. S. pellucidum. Specular spar: pellucid spar: rhomboidal spar: the androdamas of Pliny. Pellucid; hyaline, or tinged; and some. times doubling the objects by refraction. Found in Russia, Lapland, Norway, Sweden, and other mountainous parts of Europe; the refractive variety chiefly in Iceland; colour yellow, or yellowish, olive, greenish, blueish, smoky, blackish, rarely red or veined; when exposed to heat parts with its transparency and carbonic acid, and after calcination some times shines in the dark, if thrown upon hot coals.

B. Of a peculiar figure. Four species; cellular, cylindrical, globular compact, or globular with the globules empty or hollow. The following is alone worthy of

notice.

4. S. stalactiticum: of a more or less cylindrical form.

a. Botryoidal. 6. Shrub-like. Coral-form.

Found in Bohemia and Hungary, the coralliform variety plentifully in the loose marl at St. Maws, Cornwall, where it is used for manure, and in North Wales. Its appearance has so much the resemblance of a coral as to be commonly mistaken for such; but it appears on examination to be aggregations of calcareous earth ramifying in the soft marl; colour white, yellowish white, or pale ferruginous from a small mixture of iron.

C. Crystallized. A numerous family, comprising not less than sixteen species. The following are the chief.

With six-sided tables.

€. With orbicular tables. 7. With tables scattered.

. With tables imbricate.

With the faces of the rhomb in an inverse
order of the laminæ of the nucleus.
With the tables aggregate in series.
With the tables aggregate in a rosular
form.

. With the tables aggregate in cells.
1. Pearl spar. With the tables aggregate in
a prismatic form.

x. Pearl spar. With the tables aggregate in a pyramidal form.

- Found chiefly in limestone rocks in most parts of Europe: colour white, rarely yellowish, pale-brown, reddish, green, very rarely crimson, blueish, purple or black; never quite opake, but sometimes with a pearly lustre.

6. S. prisinatieum. Truncated nitre: crys talline spar, with perfectly six-sided prisms: with the terminal faces of the prisms convex; with the alternate faces narrower; with the two opposite faces far exceeding the rest; and in another variety emitting a phosphorescent

light when burnt. Found in Derbyshire, Hercynia, Saxony, Silesia, Hungary, and Spain, in mines; generally white, and frequently transparent; commonly aggregate, scattered or in regular series.

7. S. dodecahedron. Crystalled spar. Sparry tufa. With six-sided prisms, terminated at each end by a three-sided pyramid. Five or six varieties. Found in the mines of Derbyshire, Germany, Saxony, Hungary, &c.; generally pellucid, rarely yellowish, or greenish, most commonly white, with the pyramids sometimes depressed; the crystals sometimes thinner, sometimes thicker, frequently in pairs cutting each other at right angles, or clustered in regular series, or in fascicles, or in a globular olive, or pyramidal form.

8. S. hyodon. Dog's-tooth spar. Irregular nitre. With a double six-sided pyramid. Six or seven varieties. Found in the mines of Derbyshire and Cumberland, in Sweden, Hungary, and Germany; more frequently white than yellowish, or with a tinge of green: sometimes pellucid, sometimes opake; the crystals frequently very small, rarely transversely grooved, and often placed in a regular series.

SPAVIN, a disease on the limbs of horses, which causes them to halt; and of three kinds, viz. the blood-spavin, the bog-spavin, and the bone-spavin.

1. Blood-spavin is a swelling and dilatation of the vein that runs along the inside of the hock, forming a little soft swelling in the hollow part, and is often attended with a weakness and lameness of the hock.

The cure should be first attempted with restringents and a bandage, which will contribute greatly to strengthen all weaknesses of the joint, and frequently will remove this disorder, if early applied; but if by these means the vein be not reduced to its usual dimensions, the skin should be opened, and the vein tied with a crooked needle, and wax-thread passed underneath it, both above and below the swelling; and the turgid part suffered to digest away with the ligatures; for this purpose, the wound may be daily dressed with turpentine and honey incorporated together.

In treating the blood-spavin, Mr. Denny advises repeated blistering, and afterwards a compress of folded linen, moistened in a lotion of sal ammonia and sugar of lead dissolved in about equal parts of vinegar and water.

The horse, he says, should be allowed only walking exercise for three or four weeks.

2. Bog-spavin is a ganglion or an encysted tumour on the inside of the hough, or, according to Bracken, a collection of brownish gelatinous matter contained in a bag or cyst, which he reckons to be the lubricating matter of the joint altered, the common membrane that incloses it forming the cyst: this case he has taken pains to illustrate in a young colt of his own; when the spavin in this case was pressed hard on the inside of the hough, there was a small tumour on the outside, which convinced him the fluid was within-side of the joint: he accordingly cut into it, discharged a large quan

tity of this gelatinous matter, dressed the sore with dossils dipped in oil of turpentine, putting into it, once in three or four days, a powder made of calcined vitriol, alum, and bole by this method of dressing, the bag sloughed off and came away, and the cure was successfully completed without any visible scar.

This disorder, according to the above description, will scarcely submit to any other method except firing, and then the cyst ought to be penetrated to make it effectual: but in all obstinate cases that have resisted the above methods, both the cure of this and the swellings called wind-galls should be attempted in this manner. If, through the pain attending the operation or dressings, the joint should swell and inflame, foment it twice a-day, and apply a poultice over the dressings till it is reduced.

3. Bone-spavin, is a species of spina ventosa, bony excrescence, or hard swelling, growing on the inside of the hock of a horse's leg. Without entering at all into the cause of this disorder, we shall content ourselves with de scribing the different kinds of it, by their symptoms, and then enter on the method of

cure.

A spavin that begins on the lower part of the hock is not so dangerous as that which puts out higher, between the two round processes of the leg bone; and a spavin near the edge is not so bad as that which is more inward towards the middle, as it does not so much affect the bending of the hock. A spavin produced by a kick or blow is at first no true spavin, but a bruise on the bone or membrane which covers it; therefore not of that consequence as when it proceeds from a natural cause: and those that put out on colts and young horses are not so bad as those that happen to horses in their full strength and maturity; but in very old horses they are generally incurable. The usual method of treating this disorder is by blistering and firing, without any regard to the situation or cause whence it proceeds. Thus, if a fulness on the fore-part of the hock come upon hard riding, or any other violence, which threatens a spavin; in that case, such cooling astringents are proper as are recommended in strains and bruises. These happening to colts and young horses are generally superficial, and require only the milder applications; for it is better to wear them down by degrees, than to remove them at once by severe means.

The hair is to be cut from the part as close as possible, and blistering ointment applied pretty thick over the skin; this should be done in the morning, and the horse kept tied up all day, without any litter, till night, when he may be untied, in order to lie down, and a pitch, or any sticking plaister, may be laid over it, and bound on with a broad tape or bandage, to keep all close. After the blister has done running, and the crust begins to dry and peel off, it may be applied a second time, in the same manner as before; and this second ap plication generally takes greater effect than the

first, and in colts and young horses makes perfect cure.

When the spavin has been of long standing, it will require to be renewed perhaps five or six times; but after the second application a greater distance of time must be allowed, otherwise it might leave a scar, or cause a baldness; to pre vent which, once a fortnight or three weeks is perhaps enough: and it may in this manner be continued six or seven times, without the least blemish, and will generally be attended with success.

But the spavins that put out on elder horses, or full-aged horses, are apt to be more obsti nate, as being seated more inward; and when they run among the sinuosities of the joint they are for the most part incurable, as they then lie out of the reach of applications, and are arrived to a degree of impenetrable hardness.

The usual method in these cases is to fire directly, or to use the strongest kind of caustic blisters; and sometimes to fire, and lay the blister immediately over the part: but this way seldom succeeds, farther than putting a stop to the growth of the spavin, and is apt to leave both a blemish and stiffness behind; besides the great risk run (by application of so severe a nature to the tendinous parts 'about the joints) of exciting violent inflammation, and destroying the limb. The safest and best way, therefore, is to make trial of blistering ointment in the first instance and if this should not succeed, to fire the tumour with a thin iron forced pretty deep into the substance; after which it should be dressed with digestive.

SPAW. s. A place famous for mineral wa ters; any mineral water.

To SPAWL. v. n. (rpozlian, to spit, Sax.) To throw moisture out of the mouth (Swift). SPAWL. s. (rpazl, Sax.) Spittle; moisture ejected from the mouth (Dryden). ̧

SPAWN. s. (spene, spenne, Dutch.) 1. The eggs of fish or of frogs (Shakspeare). 2. Any product or offspring (Tillotson).

To SPAWN. v. a. (from the noun.) 1. To produce as fishes do eggs (Shakspeare). 2. To generate; to bring forth (Swift).

To SPAWN. v. n. 1. To issue eggs as fish (Brown). 2. To issue; to proceed (Locke). SPA'WNER. s. (from spawn.) The female fish (Walton).

To SPAY. v. a. (spado, Lat.) To castrate female animals (Mortimer).

SPAYED BITCH, a bitch upon whom an operation has been performed, by which she is deprived of the power of conceiving in future. An incision being made in the flank, midway between the hip-bone and the belly, the ova ries are extracted through the orifice, and separated from the parts to which they were united: these being returned, the wound is stitched up, and heals in a few days, if performed by a judicious practitioner, without farther trouble or inconvenience.

SPAYING. See CASTRATION. To SPEAK. v. n. preterit spake, or spoke; participle passive spoken. (rpecan, Saxon.)

1. To utter articulate sounds; to express thoughts by words (Holder). 2. To harangue; to make a speech (Clarendon). 3. To talk for or against; to dispute (Shakspeare). 4. To discourse; to make mention (Tillotson). 5. To give sound (Shakspeare). 6. To SPEAK with. To address; to converse with (Knolles). To SPEAK. v. a. 1. To utter with the mouth; to pronounce (Judges). 2. To proclaim; to celebrate (Shakspeare). 3. To address; to accost (Ecclesiasticus). 4. To exhibit; to make known (Milton).

SPEA'KABLE. a. (from speak.) 1. Pos. sible to be spoken. 2. Having the power of speech (Milton).

SPEAKER. s. (from speak.) 1. One that speaks (Watts). 2. One that speaks in any particular manner (Prior). 3. One that celebrates, proclaims, or mentions (Shakspeare). SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, a member of the house elected by a majority of the votes thereof, to act as chairman or president in putting questions, reading briefs or bills, keeping order, reprimanding the refractory, adjourning of the house, &c. The first thing done by the commons, upon the first meeting of a parliament, is to choose a-speaker, who is to be approved of by the king, and who, upon his admission, begs his majesty that the commons, during their sitting, may have free access to his majesty, freedom of speech in their own house, and security from arrests. The speaker is not allowed to persuade or dissuade in passing a bill, but only to make a short and plain narrative; nor to vote unless the house be equally divided, in which case it is generally expected that he should vote with what is termed the opposition.

SPEAKING TRUMPET. See TRUM

PET.

SPEAR. s. (rpene, Saxon; spere, Dutch.) 1. A long weapon with a sharp point, used in thrusting or throwing; a lance (Cowley). 2. A lance, generally with prongs to kill fish.

To SPEAR. v. a. (from the noun.) To kill or pierce with a spear.

To SPEAR. v. n. To shoot or sprout: commonly written spire (Mortimer).

SPEAR. The feather of a horse, called the stroke of the spear, is a mark in the neck, or near the shoulder, of some barbs, and some Turkish and Spanish horses, representing the blow or cut of a spear in those places, with some resemblance of a scar. This feather is deemed an infallible sign of a good horse. SPEAR (King's), in botany. See ASPHO

DELUS.

SPEAR-MINT. See MENTHA SATIVA. SPEAR-SHAPED. See LANCEOLATE. SPEAR-WORT. See RANUNCULUS. SPEAR-WORT-WATER. See FLAMNACELA,

SPEARAGE, in botany. See ASPARA

GUS.

SPEARMAN, one who uses a lance in

battle.

SPECIAL. a. (special, French; specialis, Latin.) 1. Noting a sort or species (Watts). 2. Particular; peculiar (Atterbury). 3. Appropriate; designed for a particular purpose (Davies). 4. Extraordinary; uncommon (Sprat). 5. Chief in excellence (Shaksp.).

SPECIALLY. ad. (from special.) 1. Particularly; above others (Deuteronomy). 2. Not in a common way; peculiarly (Hale).

SPECIALTY, SPECIALITY. s. (specialite, Fr. from special.) Particularity (Hale). SPECIES. s. (species, Latin.) 1. A sort; a subdivision of a general term (Watts). 2. Class of nature; single order of beings (Bentley). 3. Appearance to the senses; any visible or sensible representation (Ray). 4. Representation to the mind (Dryden). 5. Show; visible exhibition (Bacon). 6. Circulating money (Arbuthnot). 7. Simples that have place in a compound.

SPECIES, in natural history. The distinct forms of animals or vegetables originally so created, and producing, by certain laws of generation, others like themselves.-There are therefore as many species as there are different invariable forms or structures of animals or vegetables now existing. We commonly use the same termination both in the singular and plural, as we do in some other words of the same structure from the Latin. The duplication of the final is disagreeable to the ear, and perhaps we acquiesce the more readily in this anomaly, because so many of our plurals terminate in es.

SPECIFICAL. SPECIFIC. a. (specifique, Fr.) 1. That makes a thing of the species of which it is (Newton). 2. (In medicine.) Appropriated to the cure of some particular distemper (Wiseman).

SPECIFIC CHARACTER. A circumstance. or circumstances distinguishing one species from every other species of the same genus.

SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF LIVING MEN. Mr. Robertson, in order to determine the specific gravity of men, prepared a cistern seventyeight inches long, thirty inches wide, and thirty inches deep; and having procured ten men for his purpose, the height of each was taken, and his weight; and afterwards they plunged successively into the cistern. A ruler, graduated to inches and decimal parts of an inch, was fixed to one end of the cistern, and the height of the water noted before each man went in, and to what height it rose when he immersed himself under its surface.

The following table contains the several results of his experiments.

One of the reasons, Mr. Robertson says, that induced him to make these experiments, was a desire of knowing what quantity of fir or bak timber would be sufficient to keep a man afloat in river or sea-water, thinking that most men were specifically heavier than river or common fresh water; but the contrary appears from the trials above recited: for, excepting the first and last, every man was lighter than his equal bulk of fresh water, and much more so than his equal bulk of sea-water: conse quently, if persons, who fall into water, had presence of mind enough to avoid the fright usual on such accidents, many might be preserved from drowning; and a piece of wood not larger than an oar would buoy a man partly above water as long as he had spirits to keep his hold. Phil. Trans. vol. I. art. 5.

SPECIFIC GRAVITY. See GRAVITY (Specific).

SPECIFIC NAME. Prænomen triviale. Commonly called the trivial name.-One of those happy inventions of Linnéus, by which he has facilitated and diffused the science of botany in a wonderful manner.-"A plant is perfectly named," says Linnéus (Philos. Bot. 202), "when it is furnished with a generic and specific name."-In the same page he dis tinguishes the latter from the nomen triviale; and calls it the essential difference.-Nomen specificum legitimum plantam ab omnibus congeneribus distinguat; triviale autem legibus etiamnum caret.-Nomen specificum est itaque differentia essentialis.

SPECIFICALLY. ad. (from specific.) In such manner as to constitute a species; according to the nature of the species (Bentley).

To SPECIFICATE. v. a. (from species and facio, Lat.) To mark by notation of distinguishing particularities (Hale).

SPECIFICATION. s. (specification, Fr.) 1. Distinct notation; determination by a peculiar mark (Watts). 2. Particular mention (Auliffe).

To SPECIFY. v. a. (from species; speci fier, Fr.) To mention; to show by some particular mark of distinction (Pope).

SPECIMEN. s. (specimen, Lat.) A sample;

20,66 1,73 2,343 146,4

a part of any thing exhibited, that the rest may be known (Addison).

SPECIOUS. a. (specieux, Fr. speciosus, Latin.) 1. Showy; pleasing to the view (Milton). 2. Plausible; superficially; not solidly right; striking at first view (Atterbury). SPECIOUSLY. ad. (from specious.) With fair appearance (Hammond).

SPECK. s. (rpecec, Sax.) A small discoloration; a spot (Dryden).

To SPECK. v. a. To spot; to stain in drops (Milton).

SPECKLE. s. (from speck.) Small speck; little spot.

To SPECKLE. v. a. (from the noun.) To mark with small spots (Milton).

SPECKT or SPEIGHT. S. A woodpecker (Ainsworth).

SPECTACLE. s. (spectacle, Fr. spectaculum, Latin.) 1. A show; a gazing-stock; any thing exhibited to the view as eminently remarkable (Shakspeare). 2. Any thing per ceived by the sight (Spenser).

SPECTACLES, an optic machine, consisting of two lenses set in a frame, and applied on the nose, to assist in defects of the organ of sight.

Old people, and all presbytæ, use spectacles of convex lenses, to make amends for the flatness of the eye, which does not make the rays converge enough to have them meet in the retina.

Short-sighted people, or myopes, use con. cave lenses, to keep the rays from converging so fast, on account of the great roundness of the eye, which is such, as to make them meet before they reach the retina.

In Spain, and at Venice especially, spectacles are used with a different view: all the people of note and fashion there have them continually on their noses; a folly, that has its source in the natural pride of those people, who value themselves on a profound wisdom; and affect to stare very near at every thing; as if their eyes were weakened, and worn out with excess of attention. Vign. de Marv. F. Cherubin, a capuchin, describes a kind of spectacle telescopes, for the viewing of remote