SPIRITUS VOLATILIS FŒTIDUS. See SPI

RITUS AMMONIÆ FŒTIDUS.

SPIRITU-SANTO, a seaport of Brasil, capital of a government of the same name, with a castle. Lon. 41. 0 E. Lat. 20. 10 S. To SPIRT. v. n. (spritta, Swedish.) To spring out in a sudden stream; to stream out by intervals (Pope).

To SPIRT. v. a. To throw out in a jet (Gay).

SPIRT. s. (from the verb.) 1. Sudden ejection. 2. Sudden effort.

SPIRTING CUCUMBER. MORDICA.

See Mo

To SPIRTLE. v. a. (a corruption of spirt.) To shoot scatteringly (Derham). SPIRY. a. (from spire.) 1. Pyramidal (Pope). 2. Wreathed; curled (Dryden). SPISS. a. (spissus, Latin.) Close; firm; thick: not in use (Brerewood).

SPISSITUDE. s. (from spissus, Latin.) Gressness; thickness (Bacon).

SPIT. s. (rpitan, Saxon; spit, Dutch.) 1. A long prong on which meat is driven, to be turned before the fire (Wilkins). 2. Such a depth of earth as is pierced by one action of the spade (Mortimer).

1.

To SPIT. . a. preterit spat; participle passive spit or spitted. (from the noun.) To put upon a_spit (Shakspeare). thrust through (Dryden).

2. To

To SPIT. v. a. (rporan, Sax. spytter, Dan.) To eject from the mouth (Shakspeare).

To SPIT. v. n. To throw out spittle or moisture of the mouth (South).

SPITAL, a town of Germany, in Carinthia, with a castle, seated on the Liser, near the Drave, 30 miles W. of Clagenfurt. Lon. 13. 37 E. Lat. 46. 53 N.

SPITAL, an ancient village in Lincolnshire, 11 miles N. of Lincoln. It was part of the Roman causeway, leading from London, by Lincoln, to the Humber. Here are two springs, one called Julian's Well, and the other Castleton Well. Great numbers of Roman coins have been dug up in this village.

SPITAL. S. (corrupted from hospital.) A charitable foundation.

T. SPITCHCOCK. v. a. To cut an eel in pieces and roast him (King).

SPITE. s. (spijt, Dutch.) 1. Malice; rancour; hate; malignity; malevolence (Sid.). 2. SPITE of or In SPITE of. Notwithstanding; in defiance of (Rowe).

To SPITE. v. a. (from the noun.) 1. To mischief; to treat maliciously; to vex; to thwart malignantly (Shakspeare). 2. To fill with spite; to offend (Temple).

SPITEFUL. a. (spite and full.) Malicious; malignant (Hooker).

SPITEFULLY. ad. (from spiteful.) Maliciously; malignantly (Waller).

SPITEFULNESS s. (from spiteful.) Malice; malignity; desire of vexing (Keil). SPITHEAD, a famous road between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, where the royal navy frequently rendezvous.

SPITTER. s. (from spit.) 1. One who puts meat on a spit. 2. One who spits with his mouth. 3. A young deer (Ainsworth).

SPITTING OF BLOOD. See HEMATEMESIS and HEMOPTYSIS.

SPITTLE. s. (corrupted from hospital.) A hospital (Cleaveland).

SPITTLE. S. (rpozlian, Saxon.) Moisture of the mouth. See SALIVA.

SPIT-VENOM. s. (spit and venom.) Poison ejected from the mouth (Hooker).

1

SPITZBERGEN, the most northern country of Europe, being to the N. of Norway, be tween Greenland to the W. and Nova Zembla to the E. The coast is beset with craggy mountains, and in the winter it is continual night for four months. The animals are large white bears and white foxes. There are no settled inhabitants, and it is known only to those who go on the coast to fish for whales. See GREENLAND.

SPLACHNUM, in botany, a genus of the class cryptogamia, order musci. Capsule cylindrical, seated on a fleshy receptacle; fringe simple, of sixteen teeth, standing in pairs. Twenty species; of which fourteen are com

mon to our own country.

SPLANCHNOLOGY. (Splanchnologia, επλαγχνολογία ; from πλαίχον, an entrail, and fog, a discourse.) The doctrine of the viscera. See ANATOMY.

SPLANCHNIC NERVE. The interior intercostal nerve. See INTERCOSTAL NERVE. To SPLASH. v. a. (plasha, Swedish.) To daub with dirt in great quantities.

SPLA'SHY. a. (from splash.) Full of dirty water; apt to daub.

To SPLAY. v. a. To dislocate or break a horse's shoulder-bone.

SPLAYFOOT. a. (splay and foot.) Having the foot turned inward (Pope).

SPLA'YMOUTH. s. (splay and mouth.) Mouth widened by design (Dryden).

SPLEEN. s. (splen, Latin.) 1. The milt. It is supposed the seat of anger, melancholy, and mirth (Wiseman). 2, Anger; spite; ill humour (Donne). 3. A sudden motion; a fit (Shakspeare). 4. Melancholy; hypochondriacal vapours (Pope). 5. Inimoderate merriment (Shakspeare).

SPLEEN. (Splen, sav.) Lien. The spleen, or wilt is a spongy viscus of a livid colour, and so variable in form, situation, and magnitude, that it is hard to determine either. Nevertheless, in a healthy man it is always, placed on the left side, in the left bypochondrium, between the eleventh and twelfth false ribs. Its circumference is oblong and round, resembling that of an oval figure. It is larger, to speak generally, when the stomach is empty, and smaller when it is compressed evacuated by a full stomach.

It should particularly be remembered of this viscus, that it is convex towards the ribs, and concave internally: also, that it has an excavation, into which vessels are inserted.

mastoid process and os occipitis, splenius capitis, and that which is inserted into the vertebræ of the neck, splenius colli. We have here followed Douglas, and the generality of writers, in describing these two portions as one muscle, especially as they are intimately united near their origin.

When this muscle acts singly, it draws the head and upper vertebræ of the neck obliquely backwards; when both act, they pull the head directly backwards.

SPLENOCELE. (saλnoun^n; from, the spleen, and xn, a tumour.) A rupture of the spleen.

SPLENT, or SPLINT. (from splenium, a ferula.) A thin scale of wood, pasteboard, or leather, of adequate shape and dimensions, which surgeons apply to the sides of a broken bone, to keep the ends in contact.

SPLENTS, in horses, are hard excrescences that grow on the shank-bone, and are of various shapes and sizes. Some horses are more subject to splents than others. Young horses are most liable to them, but they often wear off and disappear of themselves. Few horses put out splents after they are seven or eight years old, unless they meet with blows or accidents. A splent that arises in the middle of the shank-bone is no way dangerous; but those that arise on the back part of this bone, when they grow large, and press against the backsinew, always cause lameness or stiffness, by rubbing against it: the others, except they are situated near the joints, seldom occasion lame

ness.

As to the cure of splents, the best way is not to meddle with thein, unless they are so large as to disfigure a horse, or are so situated as to endanger his going lame. On their first appearance, however, they should be well bathed with vinegar, or old verjuice, which, by strengthening the fibres, often puts a stop to their growth: for the membrane covering the bone, and not the bone itself, is here thickened; and, in some constitutions, purging and some diuretic drinks will be a great means of removing the thickening and moisture about the limbs, which are often the forerunners of such

excrescences.

Various other remedies, however, are prescribed for this disorder; the usual way is to rub the splent with a round stick, or the handle of a haminer, and then to touch it with oil of origanum. Others lay on a pitch plaster, with a little sublimate or arsenic, to destroy the substance. Some use oil of vitriol; some tincture of cantharides: all which methods, however useless as to a cure, are apt to leave a scar with the loss of hair. Applications of a more caustic nature often do more hurt than good, especially when the splent is grown very hard. Mild blisters often repeated, as recommended in the case of a bone-spavin, should first be tried, as the most eligible method. These will generally succeed even beyond expectation; but if they fail, and the splent be near the knee or joint, apply the fire and blister, in the same manner as for the bone-spavin.

Splents on the back part of the shank-bone are difficult to cure, by reason of the back. sinews covering them: the practice is to bore the splent in several places with an iron, not very hot, and then to fire in the common way, not making the lines too deep, but very close together.

To SPLICE. v. a. (splissen, Dutch.) To join the two ends of a rope without a knot.

SPLINT. s. (splinter, Dutch.) A thin piece of wood, or other matter, used by chirur geons to hold the bone newly set (Wiseman).

To SPLINT. To SPLINTER. v. a. (from the noun.) 1. To secure by splints (Shaksp.). 2. To shiver; to break into fragments.

SPLINTER. s. (splinter, Dutch.) 1. A fragment of any thing broken with violence (Dryden). 2. A thin piece of wood (Grew). To SPLINTER. v. n. (from the noun.) To be broken into fragments; to be shivered.

To SPLIT. v. a. pret. and part. pass. split. (spletten, splitten, Dutch.) 1. To cleave; to rive; to divide longitudinally in two (Cleave.). 2. To divide; to part (Atterbury). 3. To dash and break on a rock (Dryden). 4. To divide; to break into discord (South).

2. To

To SPLIT. v. n. 1. To burst in sunder; to crack; to suffer disruption (Boyle). burst with laughter (Pope). 3. To be broken against rocks (Addison).

SPLITTER. s. One who splits (Swift).

SPLUGEN, a town of the country of the Grisons, capital of the valley of Rheinwald, seated near the source of the Hinder Rhine, 42 miles S.W. of Coire.

SPLU'TTER. s. Bustle; tumult. A low

word.

To SPOIL. v. a. (spolio, Latin.) 1. To seize by robbery; to take away by force (Mil.). 2. To plunder; to strip of goods (Pope). 3. To corrupt; to make useless (Taylor).

To SPOIL. v. n. 1. To practise robbery or plunder (Spenser). 2. To grow useless; to be corrupted (Locke).

SPOIL. s. (spolium, Latin.) 1. That which is taken by violence; plunder; pillage; booty (Shakspeare). 2. That which is gained by strength or effort (Bentley). 3. That which is taken from another (Milton). 4. The act of robbery; robbery (Shakspeare). 5. Corruption; cause of corruption (Shakspeare). 6. The slough; the cast-off skin of a serpent (Bacon)

SPOILER. s. (from spoil.) 1. A robber; a plunderer; a pillager (South). 2. One who mars or corrupts any thing.

SPOILFUL. a. (spoil and full.) Wasteful; rapacious (Spenser).

SPOKE. s. (rpaca, Sax.) The bar of a wheel that passes from the naye to the felly (Shakspeare).

SPOKE. The preterit of speak.

SPOKEN. The participle passive of speak. SPOKESMAN. s. (spoke and man.) One who speaks for another (Exodus).

SPOLETTO, a duchy of Italy, 55 miles long and 40 broad; bounded on the N. by

Ancona and Urbino, on the E. by Naples, on the S. by Sabina and the patrimony of St. Peter, and on the W. by Orvieto and Perugino. It was formerly a part of Umbria, and is now subject to the pope.

SPOLETTO, an ancient town of Italy, capital of a duchy of the same name, with a bishop's see, and a castle. It suffered greatly by an earthquake in 1703, and now contains 12,000 inhabitants. Here are the ruins of an amphitheatre, a triumphal arch, and an aqueduct. It is seated in a country noted for good wine, near the river Tessino, 40 miles E. of Orvieto, and 60 N. by E. of Rome. Lon. 13. 6 E. Lat. 42. 45 N.

To SPO'LIATE. v. a. (spolio, Latin.) To rob; to plunder.

SPOLIATION. s. (spoliatio, Latin.) The act of robbery or privation (Ayliffe).

SPONDAULA. (from the Greck.) The name given by the ancients to a performer on the flute, or some similar instrument, who, while the sacrifice was offering, played to the priest some suitable air, to prevent his listening to any thing which might interrupt him in his duty.

"SPONDEE, in the Greek and Latin prosody, a foot of verse consisting of two long syllables;

as vērtunt.

SPONDIAS. Jamaica plum-tree. In botany, a genus of the class decandria, order pentagynia. Calyx five-toothed; corol five-petalled'; drupe with a five-celled nut. Four species, trees of the East or West Indies. One species, s. mombin, having leaves with the common petiole compressed, is cultivated under the name of puple hog-plum, or Spanish-plum: its usual height is ten or twelve feet; the stem of the size of a man's leg; flowers axillary, purple, appearing in the spring before the leaves. There is a variety called the leathercoat, from the appearance of its skin.

SPONDIASM. (Greek.) An alteration in the harmonic genus by which a chord was elevated three die es above its ordinary pitch, so that the spondiasm was precisely the opposite of the eclysis.

SPONDYLE. s. (cančúa✪.) A vertebræ; a joint of the spine (Brown).

SPONDYLIS, in the entomology of Fa bricius, a tribe of the colcopterous genus ATTABELLUS, which see.

SPONDYLUS, in zoology, a genus of the class vermes, order testacea. Animal a tethys; shell hard, solid, with unequal valves; one of the valves convex, the other flat; hinge with two recurved teeth, separated by a small hollow. Four species, all exotics; the chief of them, s. gædaropus, the shell slightly eared and spinous, inhabiting the Mediterranean, Indian, and some other seas, and found in infinite varieties as to ckness and colours; sometimes entirely purple, orange, white, or bloom-colour; sometimes marked with various streaks, spots, dots, or bands. See Natural Hist. PÍ. CLXXV.

SPONGE, in helminthology. SeeSPONGIA. SPONGE TREE, in botany. See MIMOSA.

To SPONGE. v. a. (from the noun.) To blot; to wipe away as with a sponge (Hooke) To SPONGE. v. n. To suck in as a sponge; to gain by mean arts (Swift).

SPO'NGER. s. (from sponge.) One who hangs for a mainte nauce on others (L'Est.) SPONGIA. Sponge. In zoology, a genus of the class vermes, order zoophyta. Animal fixed, flexile, torpid, of various forms, composed either of reticulate fibres or masses of small spines interwoven together, and clothed with a gelatinous flesh full of small mouths on, its surface, by which it absorbs and rejects

water.

After having been regarded at different periods as an organized living substance of a doubtful kind, then as an inorganized substance, then as a vegetable, sponge is now advanced to the animal kingdom, and usually classed as we have arranged it above. So early as the days of Aristotle it was noticed by the persons employed in collecting it to shrink back when torn from the rocks, and was hence supposed to be in some way or other possessed of animal sensation and this opinion, prevalent in the time of Aristotle, was still prevalent in that of Pliny-For many ages afterwards, however, these naturalists appear to have been regarded as mistaken upon this subject, and sponges were again held to be altogether insentient substances. Marsigli, first, in modern times declared them to be entitled to the rank of vegetables; and Dr. Peysonell, towards the middle of the last century, sent two papers upon this subject to the Royal Society, both which are printed in its Transactions, in which he maintained that they were not vegetables, but animals; and pointed out what he conceived to be the mode of their growth and propagation. The idea had, indeed, been occasionally indulged for nearly half a century antecedently; but it was conceived too romantic and visionary for general adoption and hence all the natural histories published at this period concur in the theory of Marsigli, and Bauhine, Lobel, Tournefort, Hill, and all the celebrated botanists of the day give them free admission into the vegetable kingdom, and describe them as submarine plants. Ellis, however, seems to have settled the point in 1762: his observations and experiments were chiefly made upon the spongia tomentosa; he satisfactorily ascertained the existence of the animal inhabitant; remarked its contraction within its cells when exposed to pain or injury; the expiration and inspiration of water through its tubes; and established the position that sponge is animal; and that the ends or openings of the branched tubes are the mouths by which it receives its nourishment and discharges its excrement: a position which chemistry has since abundantly supported by prov ing the ammoniacal property of the cellular matter of sponge.

There are forty-nine species of this zoophyte; of which the following are most worthy of notice.

1. S. coronata. Crowned sponge. Minute;

consisting of a single tube, and crowned at the up with a ray of spines. Inhabits the Sussex coast; pale yellow; the rays that compose the crown bright pearl colour, hollow and open at the top, and when magnified appears covered with little rising points.

Ir

2. S. officinalis. Common sponge. regularly formed, porous, tough, lobed, woolly. Inhabits the Archipelago, Mediterranean sad Indian seas, adhering to rocks by a broad base, and is often found inclosing small stones, shells, and particles of sand. Varieties of marine animals pierce and gnaw it into irregular winding cavities, which appear on the outside by large holes higher than the rest; its colour varies from a pale to a deep yellow; the internal part, when cut perpendicular, consists of small tubes composed of reticulate fibres, and ending on the outside in an infinite pumber of small circular holes, which are the bibulous months of the animal, each of which is surrounded by a few erect pointed fibres. This is the common sponge of the shops.

3. S. tomentosa. Downy sponge. Sting ing sponge. Porous, irregularly formed, brittle, soft, downy, interwoven with minutest spines. Inhabits the British, African, and Indian coasts, adhering to marine substances; when fresh, of a bright orange colour, and full of gelatinous flesh, when dry, whitish and very light, and if broken resembles the crumb or soft part of bread. It appears to be composed of a number of minute spines, and upon handling stings or raises blisters like cowitch.

4. S. botryoides. Grape sponge. Very tender, branched, covered with bunches of ovate tubercles open at the top. Inhabits the British coast; bright, shining, white; the bunches made up of oblong oval tubercles, like grapes open at the end; the surface, when highly magnified, seems covered with masses of three-rayed spinous stars.

5. S. lacustris. Lake sponge. Creeping, brittle, with erect, round, obtuse branches. Found at the bottom of lakes in England and Sweden; covered with scattered pores, in which are sometimes found, during autumn, small blueish shining globules.

6. S. fluviatilis. River sponge. Green, erect, fragile, of many irregular branches. Inhabits fresh waters in England, Prussia, and some other parts of Europe; dull green, with hardly the appearance of animal life, of a fishy smell, and with the pores full of green gelatinous granulations. Very much resembles the last.

7. S. cristata. Cock's comb sponge. Flat, erect, soft, with rows of small pores a little projecting along the top. Inhabits the British shores, adhering to rocks; generally two inches high and three long; yellowish, and growing in the shape of a cock's-comb.

8. S. baciliaris. Irregularly formed, caulescent, erect, with appressed, porulous branches. Inhabits the Norway sea; one and a half foot high, and about the thickness of a finger; round, of the consistence of common sponge,

but more compact, with very numerous pores, appearing as if perforated by a very fine needle.

Sponge has been chemically analyzed by Mr. Hatchett, and his results are given in his valuable paper on the component parts of animal membrane in the Philosoph. Transact. for 1800.

When sponge has been immersed in dilute nitric acid for a fortnight, the acid becomes pale yellow, and is changed to an orange by pure ammonia. After which process it becomes more or less transparent, and considerably softened, and is then completely soluble in ammonia into a deep orange.coloured liquor. When digested with boiling distilled water, sponge gives out a portion of gelatin, which is precipitated by infusion of oak bark. By losing this gelatin it becomes less flexible than be fore; it is easily torn when moist, and crumbles between the fingers when dry. In its natural state, but more especially when de prived of its gelatin by long boiling in water, if boiled in caustic alkali it completely dissolves and forms an animal soap. Heated in a close vessel it gives out an aminoniacal fetid smoke, and is reduced to a black charcoal, which, after incineration, leaves a small quantity of common salt, and some carbonat of lime.

The constituent ingredients of sponge, there fore, are animal gelatin, and that condensed albumen which Mr. Hatchett has found to be the principal part of all soft membranous organs, of cartilage, &c. The former is dis solved, though with some difficulty, in boiling water, but does not yield to cold water; the albumen is insoluble in water at any temperature, but yields to caustic alkali. Hence sponges only differ from the horny stems of gorgoniæ, and from antipathes, by being of a finer and more closely woven texture. reality, the coarser sponges, as s. cancellata, have a near approach to the nice reticulated parts of the finer gorgoniæ, as for instance g. flabellum, and evince an external as well as internal similarity. Burnt sponge.

In

SPONGIA USTA. This preparation is exhibited with bark in the cure of scrophulous complaints, and forms the basis of a lozenge which has been known to cure the bronchocele in many instances.

SPO'NGINESS. s. (from spongy.) Softness, and fulness of cavities, like a sponge (Harvey).

SPONGIOUS. a. (from sponge.) Full of small cavities like a sponge (Cheyne). SPONGY. a. (from sponge.) 1. Soft and full of small interstitial holes (Bacon). 2. Wet; drenched; soaked; full like a sponge (Shakspeare).

SPONHEIM, a town of Germany, capital of a county of the same name, in the circle of Upper Rhine, 27 miles W. of Mentz, and 46 E. of Treves. Lon. 7. 21 E. Lat. 49. 54 N. SPONK. s. Touchwood.

SPO'NSAL. a. (sponsalis, Latin.) Relat ing to marriage.