Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/600

 SYR

SYRlNGOTOMY, in furgery, a term ufed for the cutting

for a fiftula. SYRITES, in natural hiftory, a name ufed by fome for the fapphire, but by Pliny for a ftone, which he fays was ge- nerated in the bladder of a wolf.

SYRIUS, a word ufed by fome authors for a very ftrong purge, a preparation of fcammony, being no other than a refin, or maefiftery of that drug.

SYRMA, among the Romans, a long garment, common to both fexes, that reached to the ground. It was ufed in tragedies, that the perfons of the heroes and heroines might appear the taller. Pitifc. in voc.

SYRM^EA, a name given by the antients in general to a cer- tain root, faid to be of the radifh kind, and to be frequently ufed to provoke vomiting.

Some have made it alfo the name of a fort of viand, pre- pared of honey, the fine fat of animals, and other ingre- dients, which was the prize beftowed at one of the Spartan games : others have ufed it to exprefs a purging potion made only of fait and water, or plain brine. The Egyp- tians frequently purged thcmfelves with this radifh juice and faltj which operated gently both upwards and down wards, and thefe potions were called by the fame name fyrmcea.

Syrmtea, £i>#msi« 3 in antiquity, was ufed as a defignation of the games at Sparta, the prize in which was vvqpnut* or a mixture of fat and honey. Potter, Archasol. Grsec. Tom. I. p. 431.

SYRM./ESMUS, a word ufed by the antient medical writers to exprefs a gentle purging of the ftomach or bowels, either by dool or vomit. It had its name from fyrmeea, a word expreffing a medicine that acted in this gentle manner.

SYRTITES, in natural hiftory, is ufed by fome authors as the name of a gem of a very beautiful appearance, in the fubdance of which are interfperfed faint ftars of a fafFron colour. Hof?n. Lex. Univ. in voc.

SYRUPS (Cycl.) — There feems to be no part of pharmacy, in which the writers of difpenfatorics have more erred, than in their directions about the making of fyrups; which feems the more ftrange, becaufe this part is particularly eafy. The misfortune is, that great men cannot doop to confider common and ordinary things ; whence, however, the credit of a phyfician may fink in the edeem of thofe, who by their employments are led to a knowledge of thefe ordinary things.

The whole of the bufinefs of Jyrup-mvk\ng may be, how- ever, reduced to a few fhort and eafy rules. As firft, it is matter of experience that aqueous infufions, decoctions, or other aqueous liquors, require twice their own weight of dry fugar-candy to make them into a fyrup of a juft con- fidence, for keeping without candying or fermenting. This rule, by directing the ufe of fugar-candy, fixes the confidence of fyrup in an exadter manner than any way elfe, becaufe all falts require a determinate proportion of water in cryftallizing; fo that fugar, in the form of candy, contains always one certain proportion of water, while dif- ferent kinds of fugar may hold more or lefs aqueous matter, according to their different manner of refining, the accidents of the weather, &c. Hence, therefore, ail fuch infufions for fyrup s as are of a delicate, or dedructible colour, which is impaired by boiling, fuch as violets, clove July flowers, &c. and all fuch infufions as contain any volatile parts, which would evaporate by a boiling heat, as thofe of cin- namon, orange peel, &c. fhould have twice their own weight of fugar added to them, and be kept clofe covered in the gentle heat of a balneum marts, till the fugar is diflblved; which, to haftcn the folution, mould be reduced to powder.

Secondly, the decoctions of all fuch vegetable fubdances, as Iofe no valuable parts by boiling, may be boiled down to the proper confidence with their own weight of fugar, the two being firft clarified together with the whites of eggs in the ufual way : but if the ingredients here contain any

SYS

unctuous, or balfamic parts, whereon their medicinal Vir- tues depend, let the fugar be added from the very fird, and boiled along with the ingredients; afterwards draining and clarifying it, before it be of near the confidence Of a fyrup. This rule is founded on the property in fugar of diffolvihg refins and oils, fo as to make them intimately mix with water.

Thirdly, all vegetable juices are to be thoroughly purified, before they are boiled into fyrups. Thus the juices of le- mons, oranges, &c. are firft to be filtered, and then made into fyrups without boiling, according; to the fird rule : but the juices of mulberries, and the like, will not clarify with- out a beginning fermentation ; wherefore they mud firft ftand a day or two, and then they will pafs through a flannel ; after which thefe are to be made into fyrup with an eighth part lefs than twice the quantity of fugar ; that is, with one pound twelve ounces of fugar .0 a pint of the juice, on account of their being fomewhat faccharine them-"- felves. And wines, and vinegars, mud be made into fyrups with the fame quantity. Shaw's Lectures, p. 205.

Peroral Syrups, fyrupus pftoralh, a new form of medicine prefcribed in the late London Pharmacopoeia, and intended to dand in the place of the fyrup of maiden-hair, and fome others of that kind. It is to be made thus : take leaves of Englifh maiden-hair dried five ounces, liquorice four ounces, boiling water five pints; deep the ingredients for fome hours, and afterwards drain off the liquor ; and when it is made clear by fettling, add to it the neceffary quantity of fugar to make it a fyrup in the common way. Pem&ertorfs Lond. Difp. p. 299.

Syrup of faffron. See Saffron.

SYRUS lapis, a name given by the writers of the middle ages to a foffil, feeming to be the fume with the thymus of Pliny ? of which name this indeed feems only a corruption, accord- ing to the barbarous manners of thofe times. There are many remarkable qualities recorded of this, one of which is, that it would fwim on water. Hence it feems to have been a fpecies of bitumen ; but we want a fuller defcription.

SYSSARCOSIS {Cyc/.)~- Befides the ufe of this word to flg- nify a kind of articulation of the bones, by means of flefh, when the mufcles are extended from one bone to another ; it is alfo ufed by fome chirurgical writers to exprefs a me- thod of curing wounds of the head when the cranium is laid bare, and the inteiftice between the lips of the wound too wide for a contraction, by means of promoting the granu- lation, as it is called, or growth of new flefh. Pautus ./Egineta ufes it alfo to exprefs a preternatural generation of flefh about the vefl'els and coats of the teftes, which is fometimes the cafe in a farcocele.

SYSTASIS properly only denotes the confidence of any thing, as of a fyrup or ointment, but authors have uCed it alfo in a different fenfe. Hippocrates underftands by it a collection of humors about the palate ; and fometimes expreffes by it a contraction of any part of the body from an uneafinefs, or fenfation of pain.

SYSTEMATICAL qualities, a term ufed by Mr. Boyle to exprefs fuch qualities as arc alfo called cofmical, and do not depend on the nature and conftitution of the body itfelf, but on its being a member of this general fydemof the univ-erfe, in which capacity it is acted upon by agents, unperceived by us, which occafions great changes in it.

SYSTEMATISTS, in botany, thofe authors, whofe works in this fcience are principally employed about the arranging plants into certain orders, daffes, or genera. Linnai Fund. Bot. p. 2.

SYSIMBRIUM, water-mint, in botnny, a name given by fome to a fpecies of mint. See Mentha.

SYSTREMMA, a word ufed by Hippocrates to exprefs a col- lection of humors forming a hard tumor, or tubercle, in any part of the body ; called alio fometimes fyflrophe,

SYSTYLE, i-n architecture, that manner of placing columns where the fpace between the two fuds eonfifts of two diame- ters, or four modules.

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