Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/599

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fanle name, be they ever fo different, they always defcribe them together, and attribute their virtues to one, as well as to the other 3 nay, they too often transcribe from other authors the virtues belonging to the one, and adding them to the account of the other, leave no room to trace oat the truth, but by referring to the originals if they are in being. Thus thefe authors found the word zarnich, ufed by fome as the name of orpiment, and by others as the name of the lapis armenus, 'a ,blue colour, ufed in painting. Aetius, and fome other authors, tell us, that the Syrians always ufed the word in this latter fenfe, though all other people ufed it in the former. Avifenna on this makes thefe two different fubftances, orpiment, and armenian zarnich, the fame; and h;iving feen no lapis armenus, but what was of a o-reenifh blue, (as much of it was) he gives a chapter on zarnich, in which he tells us that it was of three kinds, yellow, red, and green : thus confounding the true fpecies of orpiment, the red' and yellow, with a blue green co- lour, wholly different from them in its nature and qualities In the fame manner the various fubjects of the vegetable world, that happen to have been at fome time called by the fame name by others, are always confounded by thefe writers. The chamaslea, and chamteleon, two very diffe- rent plants, both in figure and qualities, and which are not indeed wholly fynonymins, yet are confounded together, both by Serapio and Avifenna; and the nature and qualities of both defcribed fo conjunctly in one chapter, that they muff pafs for the fame plant with all, but thofe who have before made themfelves mafters of the hiftory of the materia medicaof the earlier times, and are able to diftinguiih which of the cha- racters and virtues belong to the one, and which to the other. The two ephemerons are in the fame manner confounded together by Avifenna, and blended in one chapter : and what is ftill more foreign than all thefe, the /Egyptian lotus, be- caufe it happens to be called by the fame name with the lotus of the Greeks, which is a trifoliate plant, is defcribed together with it in the fame chapter, though nature can fcarce afford two plants more various, either in form, or qualities. And thus in numerous other inftances.

SYNONYMISTS, among the botanical writers, fuch as have employed their care in the collecting the different names, or fynonyma, ufed by different authors, and reducing them to one another,

SYNTENOSIS, a word ufed by anatomiffs to exprefs an ar- ticulation of the bones when they are connected, as the offa fefamoidea of the toes, only by a tendon.

SYNTHENA, a term ufed by Paracclfus to exprefs an apo- plectic, or epileptic diforder, attended with violent griping pains in the bowels. This is generally mortal.

SYNTHETIC, or Synthetical, (Cycl.) a term given to that part of chemiftry, which, after the analytical che- miftry has taken bodies to pieces, or reduced them to their principles, can, from thefe feparated principles, either re- compound the fame body again, or, from the mixtures of the principles of one or more bodies in various manners, form a large fet of new productions, which would have been unknown to the world but for this art : fuch productions are brandy, foap, glafs, and the like.

Synthetical chemiftry, taken in the ftrict fenfe for the re- compofition of bodies from their own principles, is rather of philofophical, than of ordinary ufc. This however is not eafy, except in a few cafes, nor are we to imagine, becaufe it may be done in fome, that nature has taken this way to compofe them ; her method of compofition of bodies are a new fubject, and worthy a diligent inquiry. Shaw's Lec- tures, p. 169.

SYNTHETISMUS, a word ufed in chirurgical writings to exprefs the four operations neceffary to the reftitution of fractures, which arc extenfion, coaptation, repofition, and deligation, or the bufmefs of bandage.

SYNTONUM diatonum, in mufic. See Genus.

SYNTROPHIC, an epithet ufed to certain difcafes, which grow up with the patient. Of this kind is the epilepfy, which often firft feize3 the perfon in infancy, and continues growing up with him, and increafing in flxength as he does.

SYNULOTIC, a word ufed by fome writers in the fame fenfe as epulotic.

SYNYMENSIS, a word ufed by fome chirurgical writers to exprefs a conjunction of two bones by means of a mem- brane, as the bones of the fmciput are connected to thofe of the forehead in young children.

SYPHAR, a word ufed by fome naturalifts in the fame (cn(e as exuviae, to exprefs the fkins which many reptiles caft off at certain times, Thus the fnake, the water newt, and all the caterpillar tribe, part with their fkins during the time they remain in that itate.

SYRIACUS lapis, in natural hiftory, a name given by Ae- tius, and many other authors, to the petrified fpines of the echini ovarii, called by us the Jewjhnes, and petrified olives, from their likenefs to an olive in fhape, and called by the antients tecoliihus.

It has been a common opinion, that this Jlom was good againft the gravel and ftone; but Aetius limits its efficacy Suppl. Vox.. II.

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to a particular cafe, which is that where the Irony matter is lodged in the kidneys and ureters ; but he frankly con- feiles, it is of no power to diffolve or break the ftone in the bladder.

This is contrary to the doctrine of Diofcorides, and the other old Greeks ; but more confonant to reafonandexperier.ee. Some have carried its virtue fo far, as to pretend, that when rubbed to powder, and mixed in water, and that mixture rubbed on the groin and perineum, it will bieak the ffones concreted within, and bring them away in pieces by urine. This, though too grofs for belief, is yet given us by Pliny. In moft of the common editions the words fiand thus, I'm- gentium frangit cakulos ; but all the beft copies have it ungen* Hum ; and the word lingmtium is only made by dividing the two perpendicular lines in the letter TJ. SYRICON, a word ufed by fome authors in the fame fenfe as fandyx. Pliny makes it a compofition of equal parts of fi- nopis and fandyx ; and Aetius gives it as the name of a col- lyrium, ufed in many diforders of the eyes. SYRINGA, the pipe- tree, in botany, the name of a genus of trees, the characters of which are thefe, The flower is of the rofaceous kind, being compofed of feveral petals ar- ranged in a circular form. The piftil arifes from the cup, and finally becomes a fruit adhering to the cup, of a tur- binated form, and divided into four cells, which contain fmall feeds.

There is no other known fpecies of the fyringa befide the common one, and its variety, with double flowers. Town. Inft. Bot. p. 617.

Many fpecies of this flowering fhrub, common in gardens, are called lilacs. See Lilac.

In the Linna^an fyfrem. of botany, fyringa is the name of a feparate genus of plants, the characters of which are, that the flower cup is a perianthiurn formed of only one leaf, which is fmall, tubulated, and erect, and has four notches at its extremity. The flower is a fingle petal, formed into a very long and Mender tube, divided at the extremity into four fegments, which are fpread open and bent; the feveral jags, or fegments, being ftrait, hollowed, and obtufe. The ftamina are two very fhort filaments, terminated by fmall anthers, hid within the tube of tht flower. The pifrillum is compofed of an oblong germen, a thready flrylus of the length of the ftamina, and a thick and bifid ftigma. The fruit is an oblong, comprefled, and pointed capfule, con- taining two cells, and made up of two halves, containing each a fingle, oblong, and compreffed feed ; pointed at each end, and furrounded with a membranaceous rim. Linnai Gen. Plant, p. 3.

The feveral fpecies of this beautiful and fweet flowering fhrub are eafily propagated, by taking off their fuckers in autumn, of which they always produce great plenty. Thefe fhould be tranfplanted into the nurfery, where, after they have remained two years, they will be fit to be removed to the places where they are to remain. They are very- hardy, and may be planted in almoft any foil or fituation ; and require no farther culture, but to take away the fuckers, and cut out the dead wood every year, and now and then to dig up the earth about their roots. They flower in May and June. Miller's Gardner's Dictionary. SYRINGITES, a ftone mentioned by Pliny, and defcribed as being always full of cavities. Some have fuppofed this author meant the oiteocolla by this name ; but it is more probable, that he meant the ftone we now call fyringoides, or the pipe-ffone. SYR1NGOIDES lapis, the pipe-Jlone, in natural hiftory, the name of a very beautiful foflile fubftance, of which there are feveral different kinds. The iubuli ?narini, or cafes of fea worms, lodged in any folid fubftance of the foflile kind, conftitute what is called the lapis Jyr'ingoides. The moff. frequent kind is made of the common matter of the ludus belmontii, or feptaria, with tubuli of different kinds and dimenlions in it; but the moff beautiful fort is that made of the bottoms of fhips, old boards, or piles of wood; which having been long in the fea, have been pierced by the fea worms, which have made their feveral burrows, and left their fhells behind in them: the whole of thefe fub- ftances becoming afterwards petrified, is found in form ot wood, with all the knots, veins, and other characters, but wholly of the hardnefs of ftone. This is ufually of a black- ifh colour, and the pipes being of a pale yellow, the whole makes a very elegant appearance.

Our clay-pits about London afford alfo a fyringoides of this kind, but the earth there abounding with the matter of the common vitriolic pyrites, that fubftance by degrees gets into the pores of the wood, and the whole feems a mafs of py-^ rites with thefe pipes lodged in it in different directions. This has been called by authors pyrites fyr'ingoides. Hill'% Hift. of Foff. p. 64. SYRINGOTON, in furgery, an inftrument to lay open fiftuke. We have a propofal of a fyr ingot 'on, of a new foririj for laying open fiftuke in ano, by Mr. Frcke. See Ap- pendix to Barrougbbfs Tranfiation of d/truc on the Fiitula in ano.


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