Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/595

 SYM

mire, and Hampfhire, are famdus for thefe animals, which feems owing to their being clayey countries, and that more beans and peafe are fown there, than in other places. The wild kind never grow fo large as the tame, but they are much better tafted. The keepers of hogs fhould always choofe fuch boars to breed out of as are long bodied, and have deep bellies and fides, fhort nofes, thick thighs, ihort legs, high claws, a thick neck, and a thick chine, well fet with large briftles.

It is- not proper to keep too many breeding faws ; for they will produce fo many young at a time, and this three times a year, that they will not find food enough. They ufually bring .thirteen or fourteen young ones in a litter, fome- tlmes more, but they can bring up no more than they have teats to fuckle ; and they bring forth three times in a year. Young flioots, as they are called, that is, fwine of three quarters of a year old, are bell: for pork, and thofe of a year and half, for bacon. Moid and fedgy grounds are good for fwine, for they eat the roots of many of the plants that grow there ; and the fruit of the beech, chefnut, and hedge bufhes, fatten them well, and make their fiefh much better tafted, than when bred intirely in the ftye. Mortimer's Hufbandry, p. 253.

SwiSE-pipe, in ornithology, a name ufed in many parts of England for the red-wing.

SWlNG-wbeel, in a royal pendulum, that wheel which drives the pendulum. In a wfctch, or balance clock, it is called the crown-wheel.

SWINGING was prefcribed by antient phyficlans, as a good exercife in fome cafes. See Agitation.

SWINGLE, in the wire works in England, the wooden fpoke which is fixed to the barrel that draws the wire, and which, by its being forced back by the cogs of the wheel, is the occafion of the force with which the barrel is pulled. Rays Engliih Words, p. 133.

SWINGLING. See the article Brake.

SWIT, in natural hiftory, a name given by the people of the Philippine iflands to a very fmall bird of the humming bird kind, frequent in that part of the world. It is beautifully coloured, and lives on the honey of flowers.

SWORD (Cycl.) — SwoRD-taW, in the manege, is the horfe- man's right hand, as* bridle-hand is ufed to denote his left hand.

Pleas of the Sword. See Plea, Cycl. and Jus gladii, Suppl.

SYCABIS, in zoology, a name by which fome authors have called the atricapilla, or black-cap, a fmall bird well known in England. See Atricapilla.

SYCAMINOS, a word ufed by fome for the mulberry fruit, and by fome for the tree.

SYCAMORE -tree, a name improperly given by us to the acer majus. See the article Maple.

SycAMORE-w - //?, in natural hiftory, the name of a peculiarly large and beautiful moth, or night butterfly, fo called, from its caterpillar feeding on the leaves of the fycamore. This caterpillar is remarkably Iarge,very often growing to three inches and an half long, and three quarters of an inch in dia- meter. The head is fmall, and the body confifts of twelve rings, each of which has five or fix large and ftifF hairs on it, each having at its extremity a fmall, but hard globule of a blue colour, from which there often arife alfo feveral other hairs, {mailer and fhorter than the others, and having one in the middle a little longer than the reft ; on nine of the rings sdfo there is above each foot a white oval mark, furrounded by a black line ; thefe Malpighi difcovered in the filkworm to be the organs of refpiration.

This caterpillar has fixteen feet, difpofed in three feries, or ranges; fix are placed near the head, thefe ftanding very clofe together, eight more ftand in the middle of the body, and the other two near the tail : the fix that are placed near the head, are the only true feet, for the reft ferve as well to fix the creatures to any particular place, as to aflift them in their motions. The fkin is yellow and fmooth, without a iingle hair, except thofe particularly before mentioned. Thefe caterpillars being put into a box, each fpun itfelf a ftrong and firm cafe, which it faftencd to the fide of the box, and in it waited the time of its laft transformation : in each of thefe fhells there was left a fmall aperture, by means of which the creature was to get out when in its butterfly ftate, and the head of this animal was placed exactly againft this aperture. In this ftate they lie all the autumn, winter, and fpring, and in the beginning of fummer come out in the fhape of a very elegant moth. The wings, when ex- panded, meafure more than five inches, and each has an eye, like that on the peacock's tail, near the extremity. The horns are of the feathered kind, and are very large and ele- gant; and the body and origins of the wings are covered with very long hairs. Mem. Acad. Par. 1692.

SYCION, a word ufed by fome authors to exprefs a decocti- on of dried figs.

SYCITES, the figflone, an idle name given by fome authors to fuch natural nodules of flint or pebbles, as happen to ap- proach to a fig in fhape.

Sycites vinum, a term ufed by the antients to exprefs a wine impregnated with figs. Suppl. Vol. II.

SYC

SYCOMANTIA, 1^^^ in antiquity, a (pedes of di- vination performed with fig-leaves ; for which fee Pottery ArchEeoI. Grsec, lib. 2. cap. 18. Tom. I, p. 353.

SYCOSIS, a term ufed by fome authors to exprefs a tumor of the anus, differing only in bignefs from the thymus. It had this name from the refemblancc of the flefli about its edges 1 to a ripe fig. The antients underftood two forts of ulcerated tumors by this name, tho' both attending the fame part ; the one was hard and round, the other fofter, and of an irregular figure: from the firft there was discharged only a fmall quan- tity of matter, from the latter a very large quantity, and that of a very ill fmell. Some other of the antient phyfi- cians make the fame word alfo exprefs two forts of ulcerated tumors of the head, or beard, which they diftinguifh. by the fame characters into a hard and a foft one.

SYCOTA, a word ufed by fome of the antients to exprefs a fort of food prepared of figs.

SYCOTON, a name given by the antients to the liver of A pig fed with figs. This was efteemed a very elegant difti among the old Greeks.

SYDEROPCECILUS, in natural hiftory, the name of a ftontf mentioned by the antients. It was found in Arabia, and feems to have obtained this name from its being fpotted with a ferrugineous colour. The defcriptions of the antients are, however, in this, as in many other inftances, too fhort to fuffer us to guefs what ftone they meant. This might pofli- bly be a granite with fpots of this peculiar colour.

SYENITES, in the natural hiftory of the antients, a name given by many to the granite, the fame with the oriental granite of the moderns. It had this name from its country ; but our artificers have of late learned to call a very different fubftance by a name that founds very like this, the beautiful purple and yellow marble, fo frequent with us now in tables* fcfe. being called among them Sienna marble. Hill's Hift. of Foft*. p. 500.

SYLVA (Cycl.) — Sylva, among the Romans, a ludicrous kind of hunting exhibited in the circus ; fo called, becaufe the circus was really planted with trees, which had been dug up with the roots by the foldiers and brought thither, and fixed to large beams, after which earth being thrown upon their roots, the circus actually refcmbled a wood ; then be- ing filled with all forts of herbivorous animals, the people were let loofe upon them, and carried all clear off. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. in voc.

SYLURUS, in ichthyology, a name given by Gefnef td the_/7- lurus of Willughby, and others, which we call in Engliih the jheat-fijh.

The names of fifti are in general fo arbitrary, that it is not eafy to determine what is meant by them in the different au- thors who ufe them : but Artedi has very well diftinguifhed this by the name of the ft 'lurus with four cirri, or beards* at the mouth; by which it evidently is diftinguifhed from the fifh called the lake, which, though a true fi 'lurus, has only one beard.

SYMBACCHI, £t/<.fiax^ojj in antiquity, a designation given to the two men, who purified the city of Athens at the feftival Thargelia. See Thargelia.

SYMBOLISM, a word ufed by fome of the chemical writers to exprefs a confent of parts.

SYMBOLOGICE is ufed by fome for that part of the fcienc* of medicine, which treats of the fymptoms of difeafes.

SYMPARATAXIS, a word ufed by Hippocrates to exprefs the conflict between nature and a difeafe, and the aliments or medicines given in it.

SYMPASMA, a word ufed by many authors to fignify a ca- taplafm.

SYMPATHETIC inks. See Sympathetic Inks.

Sympathetic powder. The compofition of the famous fym~ pathetic powder, ufed at Goflelaer by the miners in all their wounds, is this. Take of green vitriol eight ounces, of gum tragacanth, reduced to an impalpable powder, one ounce; mix thefe together, and let a fmall quantity of the powder be fprinkled on the wound, and it immediately ftops the bleeding. The vitriol is to be calcined to whitenefs in the fun, before it 13 mixed with the gum.

SYMPATHY, {Cycl) in medicine. A part is faid to fuffer by fympathy, or confent, when it is yet whole and found, and is only affected by the fault of fome other part. Medic, EiT. Edinb. Abridg. Vol. 1. p. 449.

We have fome practical remarks on the fympathy of the parts of the body, in the Medical EiTays of Edinburgh^ Vol. 5. Art. 45.

SYMPESIS, a word ufed by the old Greek writers to fig- nify concoction, or digeftiou.

SYMPHONIACA, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the common hyofdamus, or henbane. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.-

SYMPHONIALE, in the Italian mufic, is fometimes prefixed to a canon, or fu^ue, to fhew that it is at unifon, :'. e. that the fecond part is to follow, or imitate the firft in the fame intervals, founds, notes, &c. the third to obferve the fame with regard to the fecond, and fo on.

SYMPHYTUM, comfrey, in the Linnaean fyftem of botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are!

i thefe. The cup is an erect, acute, pentagonal ■perianthium, jSff <diyid«4