Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/424

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be in this method of hufbandry, till it was of fome growth. When they only hoed to ftir the furface of the ground, or ufed what they called plain farritfon, they harrowed or hoed lengthways of the furrows, which being fomewhat harden- ed, there could be little earth thrown down thence upon the corn.

The other kind of farritim was performed by flirring the earth crofsways of the furrows, by which a great deal of it mull needs be thrown down among the young corn. The hufbandrnen of thefe times fuppofed, that the falling down of this earth upon the flalk, burying it to fome depth, was the occafion of its growing ftrongly and vigoroufly : but though this could not be the cafe, it is certain that the corn did grow better for the operation, becaufe the ground was thoroughly flirred by it, and had an advantage for the plants, like that obtained by the modern practice of horfe- hoeing.

The antients in many other cafes, as well as this, feem to have miftaken the intent and meaning of their general prac- tices in hufbandry. Columella fays that beans, peafe, and other the like herbs, mould all be well hoed when they are about four fingers high, excepting only the lupine, but that hoeing was injurious to this plant, which having only one root, when that was cut the whole plant perifhed. He adds, that hoeing was not neceflary to this plant, be- caufe it was of itfelf fo ftronga grower, that it kills all weeds, ftarving them out by drawing all the nourifhment to it- felf.

If the hufbandrnen of thefe times had fowed their lupines in rows, and harrowed only between thofe rows, they would have been in no danger of cutting the roots of the plant ; and had they been better acquainted with hoeing, they would have known that the killing the weeds is the leaft part of the advantage arifing from it, the principal being th opening and dividing the eartli, and giving it a kind of new tillage.

Tbe farritlon ufed by the antients fcratched only fo flight a part of the furface of the ground, that it is to be doubted whether it was of much advantage; and this was done fo indillinctly among the corn and weeds, without favouring one any more than another, that it is a difpute whether the good it did, in facilitating the runcation, or hand-weeding afterwards, was greater than the damage it did by tearing the corn ; fo that many of the hufbandrnen of thofe times chofe to omit it, and only to employ the hand-weeders : but with us hoeing, when carefully practifed, is of infinite ad- vantage, no way injurious to the corn, though wholly de- ftru6tive of the weeds.

It is an error therefore in the translators of the antients, to render the word farritio by hoeing^ without giving any far- ther explication of it ; for the antients truly hoed their vine- yards in an exact, fenfe of the wortl, but not their corn ; neither did they plant their corn in rows, without which they could not give it their vineyard hoeing. This farcu- lation was ufed only among fmall quantities of fown corn, and is yet in ufe for flax; for the farculum, which is a fort of very narrow hoc, is ftill ufed among the plants of flax growing irregularly, but this is too tedious and expensive ever to have place in whole fields of corn.

If the antients hoed their crops of corn {landing irregularly, as fown at random, they muff have made very mad work of it, fince they were at no pains to fow in rows, and hoe between them with their bidens, which was an inftrument with which they tilled many of their vineyards, and which entered the ground as deep as the plow, and was a much better inftrument than the Englifh hoe, which is very ill calculated for the office its principal bufmefs lies in, which is flirring the ground. TuWs Horfe -hoeing Hufbandry.

SARTORIUS {CycL)~ This is the longeft mufcle of the hu- man body ; it is flat, and about two fingers in breadth, fitu- ated obliquely along the infide of the thigh. It is fixed above by a very fhort tendon, in the lower part of the an- terior fuperior fpine of the os ilium, before the mufculus fafci;e lata;. The beginning of its body lies in the notch, between the two anterior fpines of that bone. From thence it runs down obliquely over the vaflus internus, and other mufcles that lie near it, all the way to the infide of the knee, where it terminates in a fmall tendon, which grows broader near its extremity, and is inferted obliquely, and a little tranfverfely, in the forepart of the infide of the head of the tibia, near the fpine or tuberofity of that bone, immediately above the infertion of the gracilis interior. The flefhy body of this mufcle is enclofed in a vagina made by the fafcia lata; its fibres in general are longitudinal, and when its lower tendon turns obliquely over toward the head of the tibia, it feems to be braced down, and fecured in its place by a tendinous framum or vagina. WlnJlow\ Anato- my, p. 214.

SASSAFRAS (Cyd) The culture of this tree is a hard tafic, it being a very difficult tree to keep long alive, though it will do very well for fome time. It will not live in green- houfes, and hard winters kill it in the open air. The beft way to manage it is to remove it in April into a warm and well defended place, where it will be fafe from

the cold winds, and from too much open fun. It muft not, however, be under the droppings of other trees. In winter fome mulch mull be laid on the ground round the Item, and in the fummer feafon all the weeds muft be c/bared away about it.

It is brought from Virginia and Carolina, in both which places it is common.

Ximenes, an author of confiderablc credit in the world, has ventured to tell us, that the chips of the fajfafras tree put into fea water will, in a few days, render it frefh and pot- able. He was probably impofed on by fome perfon, in whom he placed too much confidence in this article, for experi- ments fhew it to be falfe ; ever fo large a quantity of this wood, kept for ever fo long a time in fea water, having no fuch effect. Recti's Efperienze.

The oil 0$ fajfafras forms into chryflals like the oil of thyme, obferved by Mr. Neuman, and which he fuppofed like to camphor. Philof. Tranf. N° 389, 390, and 450. See Cam- phor and Oil of fajfafras.

SASSAROLLO, in zoology, the name of a peculiar fpecies of pigeon, called by fome columba rupkola, or the rock pi- geon.

It is of the fhape of the common pigeon, but fmaller, and has red legs, and a grey variegated back. It feems the fame with the llina of other authors. Aldrovand de Avib. See the article LiVlA.

SATISFACTION, in law, is ufed for the giving of recom- pence for an injury done ; or the payment of money due on bond, judgment, csV. In which lafl it mufl be entered on record. 2 Lill. Abr. 495. Terms of Law.

SATURATION, in chemiftry, is the impregnation of an acid with an alkali, or of an alkali with an acid, till either will receive no more, and the mixture becomes neutral.

SATUREIA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower confifts of one leaf, and is of the labiated kind. It differs from thyme, in that the flowers grow fcatteredly in the alas of the leaves ; from calamint, in that they do not {land on ramofe pedi- cles ; and from the thymbrae, in that they are not verti- cil late.

The only fpecies, properly of this genus, is the common. garden favory.

SATURN {Cyd.) — The ring of fa turn fometimes disappears, concerning which we have a paper in the Philofophtcal Tranfa&ions, N° 471. feci:. 9. by Mr. Heinfius of Peters- burg.

This phenomenon is rare. It ought to happen every fifteen years ; but from the fituation of the earth, with refpec~t to the fun and to Jhturn, it happens not above once in 30 or 45 years. See Philof. Tranf. loc. cit.

SATURNIAN, fatyrnitis, in antient poetry, a kind of iambic verfe ufed in fatirical writings : it confiflcd of fix feet, and a fy liable over, and thence called trimeter hypercataUcfm. Pitif. in voc. See Iambic, Cyd.

SATURNINE, (Cyd) — Saturnine tinfture, tinclura fatur- nina. See the article Tincture.

SAUEL, in ichthyology, a name given by the Portuguefe to a kind of fifh, very frequent on the coafls of China, which by the natives is called xiyu. In the months of April and May vafl numbers of them are taken in the river Kiang, near Nanking : during which time one of the moft honourable of the emperor's eunuchs takes care to have feveral mips filled with thefe fifh; which being put into the fhips alive, are buried, as it were, in ice provided for that purpofe, and in this manner preferved for the fummer's provifion of the em- peror. The fhips made ufe of to carry thefe fifli to the emperor's court at Pekin, are of the neatefl kind, and richly adorned ; and all other veflels are obliged to make way for them. Hofm. Lex. univ. in voc.

SAVELIN, in zoology, the name of a truttaceous fi{h of the umbla, or umbra kind, caught in the Danube, and in fome other large rivers. Its back is black ; its fides fpotted with yellow fpots; and its belly and the belly fins are yellow. The fcales are very fmall, and on the head there is a very remarkable feries of fpotted lines running into a lingular fi- gure, and furrounding the eyes, and running afterwards to the angle of the gills. The upper jaw is much longer than the lower. Its mofl frequent fize is about a foot in length, but it fometimes comes up to fix or eight pound weight. It is a very fine tailed fifh. Willugbby, Hifl. Pifc. p. 195.

SAVIN, fab'tna-, in medicine, is a famous hyfteric and atte- nuant ; it promotes the difcharges by urine ; but its great effect is the promoting the menfes, which it will do more forcibly than fafely, if not under very careful manage- ment.

It is kept in the fhops as an ingredient in many compofiti- ons, but is very rarely ufed in extemporaneous prefcription. Savin is a fpecies of juniper. See the article Juniper.

SAVORY, in botany. See Satureia.

SAURI FES, a flone mentioned by Pliny, and fuppofed by the antients to be found in the belly of a lizard. It feems to have been a kind of cornelian of a pale flefh. colour.

SAURURUS, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The perianthium is oblong,

coloured,