birds, by creeping close together, communicate sufficient heat.

During the whole period of incubation, the parent birds display great solicitude for the safety of their eggs and their young. Should a person then approach their nest, both parents tumble down from the air, and flutter about him, uttering all the while piercing screams expressive of their fear, anxiety, or rage. These parental cares, however, soon cease. The young soon become capable of pecking their own food, when provided for them. For a few days at first they are fed by the mother's bill: afterwards, what food the parents provide they bestow without even alighting upon the ground. Fond of indulging in their aerial excursions, they drop the food down upon their young that are waiting below, and ready to receive it. Even then, however, the ties of parental affection are not broken: the old birds, far above, still continue to watch over them, and to warn them of the approach of danger by their cries; on hearing which, the young instantly squat down upon the sand, where they continue motionless, till, by the silence of their parents, their apprehensions are removed. Their colour so nearly resembles that of the sand, that it would be difficult to find the young, were their pursuers not directed to the place by those very cries by which the parents mean to protect them.

The terns are provided with very large wings; and, from this circumstance, the young are not soon able to fly. It is not till six weeks after their appearance from the shell, that their wings have attained sufficient length to accommodate them for flight. In this circumstance, they resemble the land swallow, which remains longer in the nest than any bird of its size, and Jeaves it more completely feathered. During all this period of incapacity and nonage, the parent terns continue to shower down plentiful supplies of food to their young, who already begin to fight and dispute for their prey, displaying that insatiable gluttony which characterises their race. The colour of the first plumage is a whitish grey; the fue colour is not assumed till after the first molting.

The smaller tern, S. minuta, and the black species, S. fissipes, have nothing in either their manners or appearance so different from the greater tern as to require a particular detail. The first is eight and a half, the second ten inches long both inhabit Europe and Ame, rica. There is a spotted kind, S. cantiaca, sometimes seen on the Kentish coast, of sin gular beauty: it is called guifette by the French. This bird differs considerably in its manners from all the rest of this tribe it lives principally upon insects; not so clamorous as the common tern; and builds its nest, not upon the sand, but upon tufts of grass.

The noddy is also a species of this genus, and is described by Linnéus under the name of S. stolida. Its body is black; front whitish; eyebrows black; hind-head cinereous; bill and legs black. It is fifteen inches long, and inhabits chiefly within the tropics.

STERNAGE. s. (from stern.) The steerage or stern: not used (Shakspeure).

STERNE (Laurence), descended from Sterne, archbishop of York, was born at Clomwell, in the south of Ireland, 1713, where his father, au officer in the army, was then stationed; and after being nine years at school, at Halifax, Yorkshire, he entered at Jesus college, Cambridge. He obtained the living of Sutton, and afterwards a prebend in York cathedral, and then Stillington. In 1760 he transferred his residence to London to commence author, and in 1762 he travelled to France, and afterwards to Italy for the recovery of his health; but his disorder was a consumption, which could not be removed. He died in 1768, in London, and Garrick, his friend, penned these four elegant lines for his epitaph. Shall pride a heap of sculptured marble raise, Some worthless, unmourned, titled fool to And shall we not by one poor grave-stone praise; learn,

Where genius, wit, and humour, sleep with

Sterne ?

This author writes much in praise of benevolence, and declares that no one who knew him could suppose him one of those wretches who heap misfortune upon misfortune: but we have heard anecdotes of him extremely well authenticated, which proved that it was easier for him to praise this virtue, and indeed most others, than to practise them. His wit is universally allowed; but many readers have persuaded themselves that they found wit in his blank pages, while it is probable that he intended nothing but to amuse himself with the idea of the sage conjectures to which these pages would give occasion. Even his originality is not such as is generally supposed by those fond admirers of the Shandean manner, who have presumed to compare him with Swift, Arbuthnot, and Butler. He has borrowed both matter and manner from various authors, as every reader may be convinced by the learned, elegant, and candid comments on his works, published by Dr. Ferrier, in the fourth volume of the Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester. His private character while he lived at York was so bad, that when it was his turn to preach in the cathedral, many of the congregation would leave their pews and walk out of the church when they saw him ascend the pulpit.

STERŇHOLD (Thomas), a poet, born in Hampshire, and educated at Winchester school and Oxford. He was groom of the robes to Henry VIII. and had 100 marks left him by the king's will. He was a rigid reformer, and was so highly offended at the obscene songs then in vogue, that he turned into English metre fifty-one of David's psalms for the use of

the courtiers. These were introduced into parochial churches, and are still in repute, though the more elegant version of Tate and Brady, and still more that of Merrick, recommend themselves more powerfully to the musical ear; while those of Watts are far preferable to either in point of poetry; and in point of fitness to excite devotional sentiment, they are infinitely superior to any version of the psalms whatever. Of the rest of the psalms, fifty-eight were translated by Hopkins, a contemporary poet, and the remainder by Norton and other hands. He died 1549.

STERNLY. ad. (from stern.) In a stern manner; severely; truculently (Milion).

STERNNESS. s. (from stern.) 1. Severity of look (Spenser). 2. Severity or harshness of manners (Dryden).

STERNO. Names compounded of this word belong to muscles which are attached to the sternuni; as,

S. CLEIDO-HYOIDEUS. See STERNO HY

OIDEOS.

S. CLEIDO-MASTOIDEUS. Sterno-mastoideus and cleido-mastoideus of Albinus. Mastoideus of Winslow. A muscle, on the anterior and lateral part of the neck, which turns the head to one side and bends it forward. It arises by two distinct origins; the anterior tendinous and fleshy, from the top of the sternum near the junction with the clavicle; the posterior fleshy, from the upper and anterior part of the clavicle; both unite a little above the anterior articulation of the clavicle, to form one muscle, which runs obliquely upwards and outwards to be inserted, by a thick strong tendon, into the mastoid process of the temporal bone, which it surrounds; and gradually becoming thinner, is inserted as far back as the lambdoidal suture.

S. COSTALES. Vesalius considered these as forming a single muscle on each side, of a triangular shape; hence we find the name of triangularis adopted by Douglas and Albinus; but Verheyen, who first taught that they ought to be described as four or five distinct muscles, gave them the name of sterno costales; and in this he is very properly followed by Winslow, Haller, and Lieutaud.

These muscles are situated at each side of the under surface of the sternum, upon the carti lages of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth ribs, Their number varies in different subjects; very often there are only three, sometimes, five, and eren six, but most usually we find only four.

The lowermost of the sterno costales, or what would be called the inferior portion of the triangularis, arises tendinous and fleshy from the edge and inner surface of the lower part of the cartilago ensiformis, where its fibres intermix with those of the diaphragm and transversalis abdominis. Its fibres run nearly in a transverse direction, and are inserted, by a broad thin tendon, into the inner surface of the cartilage of the sixth rib, and lower edge of that of the fifth.

The second and largest of the sterno costales arises tendinous from the cartilago ensiformis and lower part of the sternum, laterally, and, VOL. XI.

running a little obliquely outwards, is inserted into the lower edge of the cartilage of the fifth, and sometimes of the fourth rib.

The third arises tendinous from the sides of the middle part of the sternum, near the carti lages of the fourth and fifth ribs, and, ascending obliquely outwards, is inserted into the cartilage of the third rib.

The fourth and uppermost, which is the most frequently wanting, arises tendinous from the beginning of the cartilage of the third rib and the adjacent part of the sternum, and running almost perpendicularly upwards, is inserted by a thin tendon (which covers a part of the second internal intercostal), into the cartilage and beginning of the bony part of the second rib.

All these muscles are more or less intermixed with one another at their origin, and this probably occasioned them to be considered as one muscle. Fallopius informs us, that the plate Vesalius has given of them was taken from a dog, in which animal they are much larger than in man. Douglas has endeavoured to account for this difference, but his explanation is far from being satisfactory.

S. HYOIDEUS. As this muscle, arises from the clavicle, as well as from the sternum, Winslow calls it sterno-cleido-hyoideus. It is a long, flat, and thin muscle, situated obliquely between the sternum and os hyoides, behind the lower part of the mastoideus, and covering the sterno-thyroideus and the hyo-thyroideus, It arises, by very short tendinous fibres, from the cartilaginous part of the first rib, from the upper and inner part of the sternum, from the capsular ligament that connects that bone with the clavicle, and commonly from a small part of the clavicle itself; from thence, ascending along the anterior and lateral part of the neck, we see it united to its fellow, opposite to the inferior part of the larynx, by means of a thin membrane, which forms a kind of linea alba. After this the two muscles separate again, and each passing over the side of the thyroid car tilage, is inserted into the basis of the os hy oides, immediately behind the insertion of the last described muscle.

Its use is to draw the os hyoides down

wards.

S. MASTOLDEUS. See STERNO-CLEIPO MASTOLDEUS.

S. THYROIDEUS. (musculus sterno-thyroi deus.) This is flat and thin, like the preceding muscle, but longer and broader. It is situated at the fore part of the neck, between the sternum and thyroid cartilage, and behind the sterno-hyoideus. It arises broad and fleshy from the upper and inner part of the sternum, between the cartilages of the first and second ribs, from each of which it receives some fey fibres, as well as from the clavicle, where it joins with the sternum. From thence, growing somewhat narrower, it ascends, and, passing over the thyroid gland and the cricoid cartilage, is inserted tendinous into the lower and posterior edge of the rough line of the thy toid cartilage, immediately under the insertion

of the last described muscle. Now and then a few of its fibres pass on to the os hyoides. Its use is to draw the thyroid cartilage, and consequently the larynx, downwards.

STERNOPTYX, in zoology, a genus of the class pisces, order apodalia. Head obtuse; teeth very minute; without gill-membrane; body compressed, without apparent scales; breast carinate, folded; belly pellucid. One species only, S. diaphana, which inhabits the American seas; small, compressed, truncate before, narrowed and silvery behind.

STERNUM. The breast bone. The sternum, os pectoris, or breast bone, is the oblong, flat bone, placed at the fore part of the thorax. The ossification of this bone in the fœtus beginning from many different points at the same time, we find it, in young subjects, composed of several bones united by cartilages; but as we advance in life, most of these cartilages ossify, and the sternum, in the adult state, is found to consist of three, and sometimes only of two pieces, the two lower portions being united into one; and very often, in old subjects, the whole is formed into one bone. But, even in the latter case, we may still observe the marks of its former divisions; so that, in describing the bone, we may very properly divide it into its upper, middle, and inferior portions.

The upper portion forms an irregular square, which, without much reason, has, by many writers, been compared to the figure of a heart as it is painted on cards. It is of considerable thickness, especially at its upper part. Its anterior surface is irregular, and slightly convex; posteriorly, it is somewhat concave. Its upper middle part is hollowed, to make way for the trachea arteria. On each side, superiorly, we observe an oblong articulating surface, covered with cartilage in the recent subject, for receiving the ends of the clavicles. Immediately below this, on each side, the bone becomes thinner, and we observe a rough surface for receiving the cartilage of the first rib, and, almost close to the inferior edge of this, we find the half of such another surface, which, combined with a similar surface in the middle portion of the sternum, serves for the articulation of the cartilage of the second rib.

The middle portion is much longer, narrower, and thinner than the former; but is somewhat broader and thinner below than above, where it is connected with the upper portion. The whole of its anterior surface is slightly convex, and within it is slightly concave. Its edge, on each side, affords four articulating surfaces, for the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth ribs; and parts of articulating surfaces at its upper and lower parts, for the second and seventh ribs. About the middle of this portion of the sternum we sometimes find a considerable hole, large enough in some subjects to admit the end of the little finger. Sylvius seems to have been the first who described it. Riolanus, and some others after him, have, without reason, supposed it to be more frequent in women than in men. In the recent

subject it is closed by a cartilaginous substance; and, as it does not seem destined for the trans mission of vessels, as some writers have asserted, we may, perhaps very properly, with M. Hunauld, consider it as an accidental circumstance, occasioned by an interruption of the ossification, before the whole of this part of the bone is completely ossified.

The third and inferior portion of the sternua is separated from the former by a line, which is seldom altogether obliterated, even in the oldest subjects. It is smaller than the other parts of the bone, and descends between the ribs, so as to have been considered as an appendix to the rest of the sternum. From it shape, and its being constantly in a state of cartilage in young subjects, it has been coinmonly named cartilago xiphoides, ensiformis, or sword-like cartilage; though many of the ancients gave the name of xiphoides to the whole sternum; comparing the two first bones to the handle, and this appendix to the blade of the sword. The shape of this appendix varies in different subjects; in some it is longer and more pointed, in others shorter and more obtuse. Veslingius has seen it reaching as low as the navel, and incommoding the motion of the trunk forwards. In general it terminates obtusely, or in a single point; sometimes, however, it is bifurcated, and Eustachius and Haller have seen it trifid. Very often we find it perforated, for the transmission of branches of the mammary artery. In the adult it is usually ossified and tipped with cartilage, but it very often continues cartilaginous through life, and Haller once found it in this state in a woman who died in her hundredth year.

The substance of the sternum, internally, is of a light, spongy texture, covered externally with a thin, bony plate; hence it happens that this bone is easily fractured. From the description we have given of it, its uses may be easily understood. We have seen it serving for the articulation of seven true ribs on each side, and hence we shall find it of considerable use in respiration. We likewise observed, that it is articulated with each of the clavicles. It serves for the origin and insertion of several muscles; it supports the mediastinum; and lastly, defends the heart and lungs: and it is observable, that we find a similar bone in almost all animals that have lungs, and even in such as have no ribs, of which latter we have an instance in the frog.

STERNUTAMENTORIA, in pharmacy. See PTARMICA.

STERNUTATION. s. (sternutatio, Lat.) The act of sneezing (Quincey).

STERNUTATIVE. a. (sternutatif, Fr.) Having the quality of provoking to sneeze. STERNUTATORY. s. (sternutatoire, Fr.) Medicine that provokes to sneeze (Brown). STERTOR, a noisy kind of respiration as is observed in apoplexy. A snoring or snorting.

STETTIN, a town of Germany, in the circle of Upper Saxony, in Anterior Pomerania, and capital of that part which belongs to Prus

account, the excellent history of algebra given by Dr. Hutton, in the second volume of his valuable collection of Tracts, just published. To STEW. v. a. (estuver, Fr.) To seeth any thing in a slow moist heat (Shakspeare). To STEW. v. n. To be seethed in a slow moist heat.

STEVEN. s. (stepen, Sax.) A cry, or loud damour (Spenser).

STEVENAGE, a town in Hertfordshire, with a market on Friday, 12 miles N.N.W. of Hertford, and 31 N. by W. of London.

STEVENS (George Alexander), an actor and poet, was born in London. Inclination or necessity led him early to the stage, in which profession he passed some years in itinerant Companies, till at length he procured an engagement at Covent-Garden theatre; but his performances as an actor were contemptible. After living in every kind of dissipation, generally necessitous, and always extravagant, he had the good fortune to hit upon a plan, which enabled him to place himself in independent circumstances. He composed a strange medley of sense and nonsense, wit and ribaldry, adapted to his own powers of performance, called A Lecture upon Heads. With this he travelled about England, and was uncommonly successful. By this expedient he in a few years acquired a fortune sufficient to afford him a comfortable retreat in his old age. He died in 1784. He was author of a novel in two volumes, entitled The Adventures of Tom Fool, and some dramatic pieces.

STEVIA, in botany, a genus of the class syngenesia, order polygamia æqualis. Recep tacle naked; seeds crowned with chaff, or awns, or both; calyx cylindrical, with a single row of leaflets. Five species, all Mexican plants, four herbaceous, and one shrubby.

STEVIN, STEVINUS (Simon), a Flemish mathematician of Bruges, who died in 1633. He was master of mathematics to prince Maurice of Nassau, and inspector of the dykes in Holland. It is said he was the inventor of the sailing chariots, sometimes made use of in Holland. He was a good practical mathematician and mechanist, and was author of several useful works: as, treatises on arithmetic, algebra, geometry, statics, optics, trigonometry, geography, astronomy, fortification, and many others, in the Dutch language, which were translated into Latin, by Snellius, and printed in two volumes folio. There are also two editions in the French language, in folio, both printed at Leyden, the one in 1608, and the other in 1634, with curious notes and additions, by Albert Girard. For an account of Stevin's inventions and improvements in algebra, which were many and ingenious, see our article ALGEBRA; or, for a still more detailed

STEWS (from the French estures, i. e. therma balneum), those places which were permitted in England to women of professed incontinency, and that for hire would prostitute their bodies to all comers; so called, because dissolute persons are wont to prepare themselves for venereous acts by bathing; and hot baths were by Homer reckoned among the effeminate sort of pleasures. These stews were suppressed by king Henry VIII. about the year 1546.

STEWARD (senescallus, compounded of the Saxon steda, i. e. room; or stead and weard, a ward or keeper), an officer appointed in another's stead or place, and always taken for a principal officer within his jurisdiction. Of these there are various kinds. The greatest officer under the crown is the lord high-steward of England, an office that was anciently the inheritance of the earls of Leicester, till forfeited by Simon de Montfort to king Henry III. But the power of this officer is so very great, that it has not been judged safe to trust it any longer in the hands of a subject, excepting only, pro hac vice, occasionally: as to officiate at a coronation, at the arraignment of a nobleman for high-treason, or the like. During his office, the steward bears a white staff in his hand; and the trial, &c. ended, he breaks the staff, and with it his commission expires. There is likewise a lord-steward of the king's household, who is the chief officer of the king's court, has the care of the king's house, and authority over all the officers and servants of the household, except such as belong to the chapel, chamber, and stable.

STEWARD, an officer in a ship of war, appointed by the purser to distribute the different species of provisions to the officers and crew; for which purpose he is furnished with a mate and proper assistants.

Court of the Lord High-Steward of Great Britain, is a court instituted for the trial of peers indicted for treason or felony, or for misprision of either. The office of this great magistrate is very ancient, and was formerly hereditary, or at least held for life, or dum bene se gesserit but now it is usually, and hath been for many centuries past, granted pro hac vice only; and it hath been the constant prac tice (and therefore seems now to have become necessary) to grant it to a lord of parliament, else he is incapable to try such delinquent peer. When such an indictment is therefore found by a grand jury of freeholders in the King's Bench, or at the assizes before the justices of oyer and terminer, it is to be removed by a writ of certiorari into the court of the lord high

steward, which has the only power to deter mine it. A peer may plead a pardon before the court of King's Bench, and the judges have power to allow it, in order to prevent the trouble of appointing an high-steward merely for the purpose of receiving such plea: but he may not plead in that inferior court any other plea, as guilty or not guilty of the indictment, but only in this court, because, in consequence of such plea, it is possible that judgment of death might be awarded against him. The king, therefore, in case a peer be indicted of treason, felony, or misprision, creates a lord high-steward pro hac vice by commission under the great seal; which recites the indictinent so found, and gives his grace power to receive and try it secundum legem et consuetudinem Anglia. Then when the indictment is regularly removed by writ of certiorari, commanding the inferior court to certify it up to him, the lord highsteward directs a precept to a sergeant at arms, to summon the lords to attend and try the indicted peer.

STEWARDSHIP. s. (from steward.) The office of a steward (Shakspeare).

STEWART (the Rev. Dr. Matthew), in biography, late professor of mathematics in the university of Edinburgh, was the son of the Rev. Mr. Dugald Stewart, minister of Rothsay, in the Isle of Bute, and was born at that place in the year 1717. After having finished his course at the grammar school, being intended by his father for the church, he was sent to the university of Glasgow, and was entered there as a student in 1734. His academical studies were prosecuted with diligence and success; and he was so happy as to be particularly distinguished by the friendship of Dr. Hutcheson, and Dr. Simson the celebrated geometrician, under whom he made great progress in that

science.

Mr. Stewart's views made it necessary for him to attend the lectures in the university of Edinburgh in 1741; and that his mathematical studies might suffer no interruption, he was introduced by Dr. Simson to Mr. Maclaurin, who was then teaching both the geometry and the philosophy of Newton, and under whom Mr. Stewart made that proficiency which was to be expected from the abilities of such a pupil, directed by those of so great a master. But the modern analysis, even when thus powerfully recommended, was not able to withdraw his attention from the relish of the ancient geometry, which he had imbibed under Dr. Simson. He still kept up a regular correspondence with this gentleman, giving him an account of his progress, and of his discoveries in geometry, which were now both numerous and important, and receiving in return many curious communications with respect to the Loci Plani, and the Porisms of Euclid. Mr. Stewart pursued this latter subject in a different and new direction. In doing so, he was led to the discovery of certain curious and interesting propositions, which he published under the title of General Theorems, in 1746. They were given without the demonstrations; but they did not fail to

place their discoverer at once among the geometricians of the first rank. They are, for the most part, Porisms, though Mr. Stewart, careful not to anticipate the discoveries of his friend, gave them only the name of Theorems. They are among the most beautiful, as well as most general propositions, known in the whole compass of geometry, and are perhaps only equalled by the remarkable locus to the circle in the second book of Apollonius, or by the celebrated theorem of Mr. Cotes.

In September, 1747, he was elected professor of mathematics in the university of Edinburgh. The duties of this office gave a turn somewhat different to his mathematical pursuits, and led him to think of the most simple and elegant means of explaining those difficult propositions, which were hitherto only accessible to men deeply versed in the modern analysis. In doing this, he was pursuing the object which, of all others, he most ardently wished to attain, viz. the application of geometry to such problems as the algebraic calculus alone had been thought able to resolve. His solution of Kepler's problem was the first specimen of this kind which he gave to the world. This is founded on a general property of curves, which, though very simple, had perhaps never been observed; and by a most ingenious application of that property, he shows how the approximation may be continued to any degree of accuracy, in a series of results which converge with great rapidity.

This solution appeared in the second volume of the Essays of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, for the year 1756. In the first volume of the same collection, there are some other propositions of Mr. Stewart's, which are an extension of a curious theorem in the fourth book of Pappus. They have a relation to the subject of Porisms, and one of them forms the ninety-first of Dr. Simson's Restoration.

He next published the Tracts, physical and mathematical. In the first of these, Dr. Stewart lays down the doctrine of centripetal forces, in a series of propositions, demonstrated (if wẹ admit the quadrature of curves) with the utmost rigour, and requiring no previous knowledge of the mathematics, except the elements of plane geometry, and of conic sections. The good order of these propositions, added to the clearness and simplicity of the demonstrations, renders this tract perhaps the best elementary treatise of physical astronomy that is any where to be found.

In the three remaining tracts, our author had it in view to determine the effect of those forces which disturb the motions of a secondary planet, From this he proposed to deduce, not only a theory of the moon, but a determination of the sun's distance from the earth. The former, it is well known, is the most difficult subject to which mathematics have been applied, and the solution required and merited all the clearness and simplicity which our author possessed in so eminent a degree. It must be regretted therefore that the decline of Dr. Stewart's health, which began soon after the publication of the