Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/154

LEFT STREPSIPTEHA 120 STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS parasites in the abdomen of bees, wasps, and other hymenopterous insects. The males have the front pair of wings in ■^he form of twisted filaments, the pos- terior pair are fan-shaped and mem- branous. The jaws are rudimentary. The heads of the parasitic females pro- trude from between the abdominal joints of their host. The strepsiptera are viviparous, and the larvae are little cater- pillars which attach themselves to the bodies of wasps and bees. The female larvse never leave their hosts; the male larvae undergo their metamorphosis with- in the bodies of their hosts, from which in due time they emerge as perfect winged males. Stylops Dalii and <S. Spencii are common species. STRESS, a convenient term used to express the mutual action between any two portions of matter. Thus the pres- sure between a table and a book resting on it is of the nature of a stress, which has two aspects, according as we fix our attention on the table or the book. With reference to the former the pressure is dovmward, with reference to the latter upward, and these two forces, which ac- cording to Newton's third law are equal and opposite, form when regarded as a whole the stress. Similarly the attrac- tion of the earth for the sun and the attraction of the sun for the earth are opposite aspects of the same stress, and the same can be said of all forces which obey Newton's third law, i. e., of all known forces which invariably exist in pairs. The so-called centrifugal force is merely the one aspect of the stress whose other aspect is the force which acts upon the body normally to the path. See Strain: Strength of Materials. STRIATED ROCKS, or STRIATED BOWLDERS, rocks or bowlders with striae along their surface, the result oi the passage over them of masses of ice with projecting stones imbedded in the lower part. Such striated rocks exist along the sides and at the foot of moun- tain ranges wherever glaciers have de- scended. They are found also in the Arctic and temperate zones wherever ice has passed from the N. during the glacial period. STRICKLAND, AGNES, an English historian; born in Revdon Hall, Suffolk, England, Aug. 19, 1806. Her first work, aided by her sister Susannah, was a volume of "Patriotic Songs," followed by "Worcester Field," a historical poem. She wrote: "Queen Victoria from Her Birth to Her Bridal" (1840) ; "Historic Scenes and Poetic Fancies" (1850) ; "Lives of the Bachelor Kings of Eng- land" (1861) ; "Lives of the Seven Bish- ops" (1866) ; "Lives of the Tudor Prin- cesses" (1868). Her best works are "Lives of the Queens of England" (12 vols. 1840-1848), and "Lives of the Queens of Scotland" (8 vols. 1850-1859). She died in Reydon Hall July 8, 1874. STRICTURE, a term employed in sur- gery to denote an unnatural contraction, either congenital or acquired, of a mu- cous canal, such as the urethra, oesopha- gus, or intestine. When, however, the affected part is not mentioned, and a person is stated to suffer from stricture, it is always the urethral canal that is referred to. Contraction of this canal may be either permanent or transitory; the former is due to a thickening of the walls of the urethra in consequence of organic deposits and is hence termed organic stricture; while the latter may be due either to local inflammation or congestion or to abnormal muscular ac- tion; the first of these varieties may be termed inflammatory or congestive stric- ture, and the second spasmodic stricture. The last named form seldom exists ex- cept as a complication of the other kinds of stricture. There are two principal causes of organic stricture — the first being inflammation of the canal, and the second injury by violence. Inflammation is by far the most common cause, and gonorrhoea is the common agent by which it is excited. Not unfrequently stimu- lating injections thrown into the urethra with the view of checking the gonorrhoeal discharge excite an inflammatory action which gives rise to stricture. The earlier symptoms of stricture are a slight urethral discharge and pain in the canal behind the seat of the stricture at the time of micturition. The stream of urine does not pass in its ordinary form, but is flattened or tviisted; and as the disease advances it becomes smaller, and ultimately the fluid may only be dis- charged in drops. The treatment of or- ganic stricture is too purely surgical to be discussed in these pages. Spasmodic stricture usually occurs as a complication of organic stricture or of inflammation of the mucous membrane, but may arise from an acrid condition of the urine, from the administration of cantharides, turpentine, etc., and from the voluntary retention of urine for too long a time. The treatment consists in the removal of the causes as far as pos- sible and the hot bath. STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS. The strike is a feature of industrial life en- tirely unknown before the development of the factory system of production, which in turn was made possible by the