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LEFT SIROCCO 442 SISTERHOODS place, it indicated to them that the over- flow of the Nile was at hand. SIROCCO, a hot wind storm. Most of the hot winds of the Old World are modi- fied forms of the simoom. The sirocco originates in the Sahara and travels N. to the Mediterranean and southern Eu- rope, but it is not so deadly as the proto- type. It brings with it great quantities of the desert sand, and the air becomes so dense at times that the sun is obscured as if by fog. While it remains on the African mainland it is characterized by a very marked dryness, as there are no extensive water surfaces to supply it with moisture. As soon, however, as it is launched over the Mediterranean it begins to take up copious draughts, so that when it reaches Malta, Sicily, and the S. shores of Europe as a wind from between S. E. and S. W. f it has undergone a change from a hot, dry wind to a hot, damp wind. The result of this alteration is that it becomes most enervating to the human constitution. During its prevalence iron rusts, clothes spoil with mildew, grapes and green leaves wither, wine will not fine, and paint will not dry. Sicily expe- riences the sirocco about a dozen times a year, but it is not so frequently met with in other parts of Europe. SISIONDI (SlMONDE), JEAN CHARLES LEONARD DE, a historian; born in Geneva, Switzerland, May 9, 1773. His principal works are: "History of the Italian Republics in the Middle Ages" (16 vols. 1807-1818) ; "History of the New Birth of Liberty in Italy" (1832) ; "His- tory of the French" (31 vols. 1821-1834) ; "History of the Fall of the Roman Em- pire" (1835); "Julia Severa; or, The Year 492" (1882) ; "Literature of the South of Europe" (1813). He died in Geneva, June 25, 1842. SISSON, EDWARD OCTAVIUS, an American educator, born at Gateshead, England, in 1869. He came to the United States in 1882 and was educated at Kan- sas State Agricultural College, Univer- sity of Chicago, University of Berlin and Harvard University. From 1886 to 1891 he was a teacher and principal of public schools; from 1892 to 1897 principal of the South Side Academy, Chicago, 111.; from 1897 to 1904 director of Bradley Polytechnic Institute, Peoria, 111; from 1905 to 1906 assistant professor of educa- tion at the University of Illinois; from 1906 to 1912 professor of pedagogy and director of the department of education at the University of Washington; from 1913 to 1917 State commissioner of edu- cation of Idaho; and since 1917 president of the State University of Montana. He was a member of various educational so- cieties and, besides lecturing and contrib- uting articles on educational subjects, he was the author of "The Essentials of Character" (1910) ; and joint author of "The Social Emergency" (1913) ; "Prin- cipals of Secondary Education" (1914). SISTAN, an extensive level and low- lying tract on the borders of Persia and Afghanistan, partly filled by the Hamum (Sistan) Lake or swamp. It is divided between Persia and Afghanistan. SISTERHOODS, societies or communi- ties of women living together under a re- ligious rule, binding upon all, and with a common object for their united life. But in common use the word denotes those communities which are not enclosed, and whose life is one of active labor. An account of the great religious communi- ties of women in the early and Middle Ages of Christianity falls under the head of Monachism. Indeed the state of Chris- tendom for many centuries prevented the possibility of life and work for women such as that of Sisters of Charity. Wo- men were affiliated to the great monastic orders, the Benedictine, Augustine, Car- melite, etc., but, with one partial excep- tion, that of the Hospitalers, "Religieuse Hospitalieres," were invariably cloistered. There were several communities of hos- pital nuns, the great hospitals of the Ho- tel Dieu at Paris, San Spirito at Rome, Dijon Hospital, and several others in France being served by them. But they lived in convents adjoining the hospitals, and only left their cloisters to nurse the sick. Even when the Franciscan and Do- minican orders of preaching friars arose, the nuns belonging to them, the Poor Clares and Dominican nuns, were strictly enclosed. The first sisterhood in England, that founded by Dr. Pusey, was broken up in 1855, after the war in the Crimea, where some of the sisters had worked under Florence Nightingale. A few of the orig- inal members of this first English sister- hood joined a small community which had been founded by Miss Lydia Sellon in 1846, called the Society of the Holy Trin- ity. One of the largest and most impor- tant sisterhoods in England was founded in 1851 under the title of "Sisters of the Poor," by Miss Harriet Byron. St. Mar- garet's Sisterhood was founded at East Grinstead in 1854 by the Rev. Dr. J. M. Neale for the purpose of nursing the sick poor or rich in their homes. The Holy Cross Sisterhood, whose headquarters are at Holy Cross Home, Hayward's Heath, was formed in 1857. One of the most flourishing sisterhoods in England — that of St. Mary's, Wantage — was founded by the Rev. Dr. Butler, afterward Dean of Lincoln, primarily for penitentiary work.