Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/501

 SOD

The Chinefe have of late difcovered a fort of earth, which they call boacbe. They fay that this is hard, fmooth, and foft to the touch, Yikefaap; thefe, and its other qualities;, feem to prove it to be the fame with our foap-rocky and this with them makes a fort of porcelain, fuperior to the com- mon kind in beauty, and in the compaclnefs of its texture, but it is more apt to crack. They ufe it feveral ways, fome- times alone, fometimes with the petunfe, which is a ftone, and fometimes they make a varnifh, by diflblving this in water, with which they coat over the common China, covering it finally with the other varnilh. All thefe ways of ufing it produce very beautiful wares, and it will be ex- tremely worth our while to try them all round, before wc give up the ufe of fo valuable a thing. Obferv. fur les Coutumes de PAfie. See the article Hoache.

&OAR-bawk. See the article Falcon.

SOATTO, a Venetian name of a fiih, common in the mark- ets there, and of a middle nature between the plaife and turbot. WUhgbbyy Hift. Fife, p, 95. See the article So-

AGGIO.

SOAVE, or Soavemente, in the Italian mufic, fignifies to fmg or play in a fweet and agreeable manner.

SOBRE buena, a name given by the Spaniards in America to a fpecies of vanilla, which is greatly fuperior to all the other kinds.

The pods of this are of the fame ftiape with thofe of the common vanilla, but are nearly twice as large. A bundle, of about fifty of thefe, ufually weighs five ounces, and fuch a bundle of the fobre buena kind often weighs eight. Thefe are full of a blackifh balfamic -liquor, in which are contained a number of fmall feeds.

SOCAGERS, in our old writers, fuch tenants as held by the

. tenure called focage. They were otherwife called fockmen. See the article Sockmen.

SOCCELLI, among the Romans, were fvvaths or bands, which covered the leg down to the foccus. Pitifc. in voc. See the article Soccus, CycL

SOCII, allies., among the Romans. See Alliance, CycL

SOCK (Cyc/.)— Sock and fythe-land. See the article Hus-

BAND-W

SOCKET {Cycl.) — Sockets, in a fhlp, are the holes which the pintles of the murthering pieces go into,

SOCMEN, or Sokemen, focmanniy fuch tenants as held their lands and tenements in focage ; but the tenants in antient demefne feem moft properly to be called focmans. F. N. B. 14. Briton, c. 66. Terms of Law. Blount, Cowel.

JSOCNA, in our old writers, a privilege, liberty, or franchife. Blount. The word is Saxon.

SOCO, in zoology, the name of a Brafilian bird of the heron- kind, but remarkable, beyond all the reft of that genus, for the length of its neck. It is very common in the Brafils. It is fmaller than the common heron ; its beak is ftrong, ftrait, and fharp ; its tail fhort ; its head and neck brown, and variegated with black ; and its body is of the fame co- lours in different variegations, but its wings have a mixture of whitenefs. Marggrave's Hift. Brafil.

SODA, in medicine, the name of a diftemper, confifting in an uneafy and troublefome fenfation of heat about the ori- fice of the ftomach, which fometimes is owing to external, fometimes to internal caufes. It is to be obferved, that what we underftand by the word foda is to be dirtmguiihed from the foda of the antients, for they exprefi'ed by this word a peculiarly {harp and terrible pain in the head.

Signs of a Soda. The perfons amicled with it complain of a difagreeable fenfation in the ftomach, particularly about the cefophagus, which they do not well know whether to term cold or heat ; but it feems rather fuch a fenfation of heat as is produced by the violent colds of winter, than any other, according to the old phrafe, that ftigus adurat, cold burns. With this fenfation there is always joined a tenfive and prefling weight of the other parts of the ftomacb, and a light conftri&ion running all the way up the cefophagus, from the ftomach to the fauces, attended with a running up of water into the mouth, and a naufea, and frequently a reach- ing to vomit. It is a diftemper that moftly affects perfons of plethoric habits, and fuch as are fubjedt to commotions of the blood.

The internal caufes of this diforder are congeftions of blood about the ftomach and inteftines \ a bilious foulnefs in the prima? vise, and a tremulous motion of the fibres of the ftomach. The external caufes arc the eating great quanti- ties of fat things, and drinking immediately after them, and taking great quantities of the hot aromatics, which exag'itate the blood, and bring on a continual irritation. A fudden cooling of the ftomach, while the body is very hot, will alfo occafion this; and the taking of hot medi- cines, under a notion of ftrengthening the ftomach j and finally, the drinking of feculent liquors, and the eating fowcr foods.

This is in. itfeif a diftemper of no great confequence, but when it is fuffered to grow upon the patient, and efpecially when injudicioufly treated, it often is attended with bad fymptoms, and fometimes brings on. dangerous diforders.

S O I

Method of aire. It is often a difeafe fcarce worthy the con- fideration of a phyfician, but when it is fo, the fixed alkalis* Combined with fome volatile fait, feem the moft proper re- medies; fuch are the tincture of fait of tartar, mixed with fpirit of hartfhorn, or the alkalis alone, as ten or twenty drops of the oil of tartar : but in thofe particular cafes, where it arifes from great commotions of the blood, gentle acids are, on the contrary, the proper means of cure, or the compound powders of nitre and cinnabar. When a bilious foulnefs is in the cure, the nitrous medicines, with the teftaceous abforbents, as crabs eyes, oifter-fhells, and the like, are the proper remedies ; and in all cafes, the fre- quently taking draughts of warm liquors, as of tea, and the like, is extremely proper: and people, who are very much troubled with returns of this complaint, and are of a ple- thoric habit, are to be advifed to bleed and purge every fpring and autumn.

The common opinion being, that this complaint is merely owing to an acid humor, has given rife to the ufe of chalk in it as an univerfal remedy ; and people, who are afflicted with it, ufually fwallow chalk alone, and that in large quantities, for their cure. But this is by no me^ns a fafe, or advifable method : for the chalk meeting with an acid, becomes a violent aftringent on mixing with it, and pow- erfully contracts the tender fibrillse of the ftomach. Whence it often happens, that inftead of a cure, the confequences are more painful cardialgias, with obftruftions of the vifcera, anorexies, and often in women fuppreflions of the menfes. Some give the powder of bricks inftead of chalk : but this is more dangerous than the chalk, as it is in itfeif more aftringent. In people, who are affliifted with this complaint from eating fat things, a draught of brandy often proves an immediate cure. Junkers Confp. Med. p. 589. Soda fubetbica, a term ufed to exprefs a heavy and dull pain

in the head. SODDING of brick See the article Brick. SODE-JboatSy in botany, a name given by fome to the tree., whofe infpiftated juice is the gum tachamahacca of the fhops. Par. Bat. Prodr, p. 379. SODOMY (Cycl.)— There is no Statute in Scotland againft fpdomy ; the libel of this crime is therefore founded on the divine law, and practice makes its punifhment to be burning alive. SOFFIETTA, the bellows-fifh, a name by which fome have called the fcolopax, a fmall fea-fiih, common in the markets of Rome and Venice. Willughbyy Hift. Pifc. p. 161. See the article Scolopax. SOGETTO, fubjecl, in the Italian mufic, is ufed for a fong or melody, on which fome counterpoint is to be made ; this may be done varioufly ; thus, 1. cmtrapunto fopra il fogetto, a counterpoint above the fubjedl:, is that of which the fubjeel: is the bafs. 2. Contrapunto fotto il fogetto, when the given fubjedl is the higher part. If the fubjeft, in either cafe, does not change its notes, it is called fogetto iwuariato. But if the notes be changed, either in figure or pofition, it is called fogetto variato. 3. Sogetto is alfo ufed for the words to which a fong is to be made. 4. Sogetto is Hkewife applied to a feries of notes, from which a fugue is formed. See the article Fugue. SOIL {CycL) — The land of England, as confidered by the farmer, is reduced into nine forts of foils ; the fandy, the gravelly, the chalky, the ftony, the rocky, the hazely, the black earth, the marfh, and the clay land. Of this laft kind there are four varieties, diftingniflied by their colours; the black, the blue, the yellow, and the red. In many places thefe foils are mixed and blended together, and where it is fo, it is much better than where they are feparate or fingle ; efpecially where the mixtures happen to be of a right kind, as thofe of the hot and the dry foils blended with the cold and the moift. Nature does this often, and art may imitate it. All fands are hot, and all clays are cold, and therefore the laying clay upon fandy lands, or fand upon clayey lands, is the beft of all manure : this alters and changes for the better the very nature of the land itfeif, whereas dung only improves it for a time, and after that leaves it as bad as it was before. Mixt foils, that tend to the clayey-kind, are the beft of all others for corn. It is not only the natural foil we are to confider, but the depth of it, and what foil is underneath ; for the richeftyS//, if it be only eight or ten inches deep, and lies upon a cold clay, or upon ftone, will not be fo fruitful to the farmer as the leaner foils that lie upon better under-ftrata. Gravel or fand are the beft under-ftrata, of all others, to make the land above prolific. Mortimer's Hufbandry, p, 64. Cold and wet clays are much more fruitful in the fouthern parts of England, than in the north. The climates, there- fore, are to be confidered, and the quantities or proportions of the different kinds ia the mixed foils. The natural produce of the land, as to weeds or grafs, is alfo to be greatly regarded by the perfon who intends to improve upon it. What is the effecl: of plowing is next to be enquired into, and experiment muft fhew what kind of corn agrees beft

with it.

T All