Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/574

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STROPPUS, among the Romans, the thong with which the oars were tied to the fcahnus. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. in voc. See the article Scalmus.

STRUFERTARII, among the Romans, perfons hired to perform fome kind of facrifices near the trees that had been thunder-ftruck. Pitifc. in voc.

STRUMARIA, a name by which Galen has called the little burdock. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

STRUMUS, in botany, a name given by fome of the old Roman authors to the cucubalus, or berry-bearing chick- weed.

It bad this name from its being found of fervice in ftrumous and fcrophulous fwellings, when externally applied. The name mcuhalus feems to have been derived from the word haUccacchwn, or the winter cherry, for the antients efteemed both thefe plants fpecies of nightfhade ; and fome of them have plainly defcribed the cucubalus under the name ofifola- num hortenfe.

STRUPPI, among the Romans, garlands or wreaths of ver- vain, wherewith the ftatues of the Gods were crowned. Pitifc. in voc.

STRUT, a term ufed by fome builders for that brace which is framed into the king-piece and the principal rafters. See Brace, Cycl.

STRUTHIO, in zoology, the name of the oftrich in the Linnsean fyftem. Others ufually call it the Jlritihio camehts. According to the fyftem of that author, this makes a diftinc~fc genus of birds, the characters of which are, that it has only two fore toes on each foot, and no hinder ones. See Tab. of Birds, N° 19. Linnai Syft. Nat. p. 47.

STRUTHIOMELA, a word ufed by Piiny and the antients to exprefs a fort of quinces, which were fmaller than the common kind, and of a fweeter'juice and lefs aftringent.

STRUTHIOPTERI, in natural hiftory, a name given to a feries of flies, of the clafs of thofe which do not feed on flefh : thefe have remarkable fhort wings, and are always 'found on flowers and leaves of plants. There are feveral fpecies of thefe. The moft frequent among us are a white- bodied one with black wings, which cover but a very fmall part of the back, and with feathered wings ; and two others with long bodies, of a dufky grey, ftreaked with white. Thefe are all early flies, being found in the fpring in hedges and bufhes.

STRUTHIOPTERIS, in botany, a name by which Tragus, and fome other authors, have called the lonchitis, or fpleen- wort. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

STRUTHIUM, in natural hiftory, a name given by the Greeks to a plant called by the Latins lanaria herba, from its ufe in the manufacture of their wool. Many have fup- pofed the xkafcufa of the antients to be the fame with this plant, but that is an error, for the chafcufa of the Greeks is the antirrhinum of the Latins, as is plain from Pliny; and the fame author tells us, that it has leaves like thofe of flax, fmall, narrow, and fmooth. All the account we have of the Jiruthium is from Diofcorides, who fays, that it was a kind of thiftle, fomewhat refembling the fcolymus, and having a large root, long, and of the thickhefs of two or three fingers, and very iharp prickles on the leaves. This fhort account, though not enough perhaps certainly to inform us what the plant was, is yet abundantly fufneient to prove, that it was not the chafcufa, or antirrhinum. Many have fuppofed that the candes, or candifi of the Arabian writers, is the fame plant with the jiruthium of the Greeks, and the old interpreters of the works of Avicenna and Sera- pion tell us that it is fo ; nay, Avicenna himfelf gives us the defcription of the Jlrutbiwn, as it frauds in Diofcorides, under his name candifi, and Serapio under his title of candes : but all that we may learn from this, is, that the Arabians were as liable to errors about the Greek Phyficians works as ourfelves, and that the Jiruthium of the antients was as much unknown in their days as- in ours. Alphagus gives us a genuine defcription of the candes, or candifi, out of the writings of Ebeiibita de Sbnplicibus, who fays, that it was common in Syria; and exprefsly adds, that neither Diofco- rides, nor Galen, were at all acquainted with it, nor had any where mentioned it under any name. It may feem Arrange to fome, that Serapio and Avicenna ihould miftake the plants of Diofcorides, and their other Greek predeceflbrs ; but we find, by Aviccnna's character of the artanita, which is not the artanita, but the leontope- ialon of Diofcorides, that the Greek phyficians works were at that time translated into the Arabic language; and thefe Arabians ufed that tranflation in their own tongue, never troubling themfelves to refer to the original. Now though it is probable, that neither Serapio nor Avicenna would have erred about the plants of Diofcorides, had they read the

- works of that author in the original, yet is very eafy to fuppofe that a common tranflator might make blunders about fuch nice fubjeets as the fynonyms of plants ; and thefe muft all be tranfplanted into the works of the Arabian writers, who, according to their own accounts, made ufe of thefe ■ tranflation^, inftead of the originals; and on this foundation we may fafely affirm, that the artanita of the Arabians is the kontepitakn> not the artanita of the modern times, and that

the candes, or candifi of the Arabians, though we do not know what it is, yet evidently is not the Jiruthium of the Greeks.

We find the Jiruthium celebrated among the Romans for its virtues ; but all the account we have of it from them, is, that it was a prickly plant, and was very common in the Grecian iflands. This however is fuffident to convince us of the great error of thofe who make this plant, and the ojlrucium of the later writers, to be the fame plant. The oftrucium is the Smyrnium, or Alexanders, and can by no means be fuppofed the fame with this prickly plant; yet Maccr has made them the fame, and has attributed to the Smyrnium, or Alexanders, the virtues which Theophraftus gives to the ftruthion.

Struthium, in the materia medica, is ufed by modern au- thors as the name of the luteola, or dyers weed, a common wild plant with narrow leaves and yellow flowers. Dale'* Pharm. p. 248.

Struthium is alfo ufed by fome for the faponaria, or foap- wort. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

STRYCHNUS, a name given by the antients to the plant we call folanum, or nightfhade. Some of the old authors have alfo called this tithymal; and in the times of Theophraftus, we find that tithymal and nightfhade were fynonymous terms.

The oldeft authors b mention only three kinds of firychnus^ or nightfhade ; the one they call the Jleepy night/hade, the other die mad nightfhade \ thefe two being poifonous, and exerting their bad efFe&s, by making people fkepy or mad; and the third they called the ejhdent nightfhade. This feems to have been the fame with our ponium amoris, or love apples ; 'which, though not much efteemed in England, yet in Spain, ' and many other parts of the world, are universally eaten in foups, &c. — [ b Theophrajlus, lib. 9. cap. 11.] Pliny e, In his account of the folanum, feems to intend the fame thing as Theophraftus ; but having colle6ted the ac- counts of different authors, and put them together in a con- fufed manner, it is not eafy to comprehend what he means ; and to add to the perplexity, this is one of the parts of that author where the copies are very faulty. — [ c Lib. 21. cap. 31.]

STUB, in the manege, is ufed for a fpl inter of frefh-cut un- der-wood, that goes into a horfe's foot as he runs ; and piercing the fole through to the quick, becomes more or lefs dangerous, according as it finks more or lefs into the foot.

STUD, in the manege. See Breed.

STUDDING-/*//, in a Ihip, the fame with what is called a goofe-wing. See the article QoosE-wing. St udding- fails, are bolts of canvas, or any cloth that will hold wind, extended in a fair gale of wind along the fide of the main-fail, and boomed out with a boom. They are fometimes a!fo ufed to the clew of the main-fail, fore-fail, and fprit-fail, when the fiiip goes either before the wind, or quartering.

STUFFING, or Congestion*, in medicine, the name of a diftempered ftate of the body, in which there is a fpecial and peculiar direction of the blood, in larger quantities than or- dinary, to fome particular places, in order to its there mak- ing its way out by an haemorrhage, and relieving nature from an over-abundant quantity of it, that the reft may cir- culate the more freely and eafily.

Conge/lions differ in regard to the places where they appear ; fome are made in the head, others in the breaft; fome in the hypocondria, and fome in the kidneys ; and others in the hemorrhoidal vefiels. In this alfo there is fome regularity in regard to the age and conftitution of the patient ; for in young perfons congcjlions are ufually made in the head, in middle-aged people in the breaft, and in thofe fomewhat farther advanced in years toward the abdomen. Medical writers diftinguifh congejlicns into two kinds, the complete, and the incomplete. The complete congjlions, are thofe in which the blood is directed to fuch a part where it is natural and eafy for it to be difcharged. by an haemor- rhage ; fuch are the head, the lungs, the uterus,- and intefti- num reclaim ; and in which it is carried in large quantities to the very parts.

The incomplete congcjlions, are thofe in which the blood is indeed directed toward thefe, or the like parts, from whence it ought to be difcharged, but never is carried to them, or indeed near them, but collecting itfelf at a diftance from them, can never come to a difcharged by a haemorrhage. Something of this kind is obferved in the rheumatiim, gout, and what are called the cold catarrhs.

Conge/lions are alfo divided into two kinds, from the matter they are occafioned by: the one are called fangnineous ; in thefe the blood is always ready to appear in its own form in an hemorrhage. The other are filled beehU ; thefe extend themfelves farther than the fanguineous, and thefe have their origin from the blood : but when a pafiage is by any means denied to the whole fubflance of the blood, its ferous parts only form the congeftions ; and thefe, as they are be- come either mucidoferofe, or ferofofaline, are the occafion of coryzx, gravedines, moift coughs and afthrnas, cold ede- matous, fcirrhous, and glandulous tumors.

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