Page:EB1911 - Volume 24.djvu/66

 if at all, affected in this disease, as, for example, the heart, the rhythmic movements of which are not as a rule impaired. But the heart may suffer in other ways, especially from inflammatory conditions similar to those which attend upon rheumatism and which frequently lay the foundation of permanent heart-disease. In severe cases of St Vitus’s dance the child comes to present a distressing appearance, and the physical health declines. Usually, however, there is a remission of the symptoms during sleep. The mental condition of the patient is more or less affected, as shown in emotional tendencies, irritability and a somewhat fatuous expression and bearing, but this change is in general of transient character and ceases with convalescence.

This disease occasionally assumes a very acute and aggravated form, in which the disorderly movements are so violent as to render the patient liable to be injured, and to necessitate forcible control of the limbs, or the employment of anaesthetics to produce unconsciousness. Such cases are of very grave character, if, as is common, they are accompanied with sleeplessness, and they may prove rapidly fatal by exhaustion. In the great majority of cases, however, complete recovery is to be anticipated sooner or later, the symptoms usually continuing for from one to two months, or even sometimes much longer.

The remedies proposed have been innumerable, but it is doubtful whether any of them has much control over the disease, which under suitable hygienic conditions tends to recover of itself. These conditions, however, are all-important, and embrace the proper feeding of the child with nutritious light diet, the absence of all sources of excitement and annoyance, and the rectification of any causes of irritation and of irregularities in the general health. For a time, and especially if the symptoms are severe, confinement to the house or even to bed may be necessary, but as soon as possible the child should be taken out into the open air and gently exercised by walking. Rührah, recognizing the importance of rest, recommends a modified Weir-Mitchell treatment. Of medicinal remedies the frost serviceable appear to be zinc, arsenic and iron, especially the last two, which act as tonics to the system and improve the condition of the blood. In view of the connexion of chorea with rheumatism, Koplik and Dr D. B. Lees recommend salicylate of soda in large doses. Recently ergot, hot packs and monobromate of camphor have found advocates, while cessation of the movements has followed. the application of an ether spray to the spine twice daily. As sedatives in cases of sleeplessness, bromide of potassium and chloral are of use. In long-continued cases of the disease much benefit will be obtained by a change of air as well as by the employment of moderate gymnastic exercises. The employment of massage and of electricity is also likely to be beneficial. After recovery the general health of the child should for a long time receive attention, and care should be taken to guard against excitement, excessive study or any exhausting condition, physical or mental, from the fact that the disease is apt to recur, and that other nervous disorders still more serious may be developed from it.

In the rare instances of the acute form of this malady, where the convulsive movements are unceasing and violent, the only measures available are the use of chloral or chloroform inhalation to produce insensibility and muscular relaxation, but the effect is only palliative.

 SAINT-WANDRILLE, a village of north-western France, in the department of Seine-Inférieure, 28 m. W.N.W. of Rouen by rail. It is celebrated for the ruins of its Benedictine abbey. The abbey church belongs to the 13th and 14th centuries; portions of the nave walls supported by flying buttresses are standing, and the windows and vaulting of the side aisles are in fair preservation. The church communicates with a cloister, from which an interesting door of the Renaissance period opens into the refectory. Beside this entrance is a richly ornamented lavabo of the Renaissance period. The refectory is a room over 100 ft. long, lighted by graceful windows of the same period. The abbey was founded in the 7th century by St Wandrille, aided by the donations of Clovis II. It soon became renowned for learning and piety. In the 13th century it was burnt down, and the rebuilding was not completed till the beginning of the 16th century. Later in the same century it was practically destroyed by the Huguenots, and again the restoration was not finished for more than a hundred years. The demolition of the church was begun at the time of the Revolution, but proceeded slowly and in 1832 was entirely stopped.

 SAINT YON, a family of Parisian butchers in the 14th and 15th century. Guillaume de Saint Yon is cited as the richest butcher of the Grande Boucherie in the 14th century. The family played an important role during the quarrels of the Armagnacs and Burgunclians. They were among the leaders of the Cabochian revolution of 1413. Driven out by the Armagnacs, they recovered their influence after the return of the Burgundians to Paris in 1418, but had to flee again in 1436 when the constable, Arthur, earl of Richmond, took the city. Garnier de Saint Yon was échevin of Paris in 1413 and 1419; Jean de Saint Yon, his brother, was valet de chambre of the dauphin Louis, son of King Charles VI. Both were in the service of the king of England during the English domination. Richard de Saint Yon was master of the butchers of the Grande Boucherie in 1460.

 ST YRIEIX, a town of west central France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Haute-Vienne, on the left bank of the Loue, 26 m. S. of Limoges on the railway to Brive. Pop. (1906) town 3604, commune 7916. The town possesses a church in the early Gothic style known as Le Moûtier, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries, and a tower of the 12th century which is a relic of its fortifications. Its quarries of kaolin discovered in 1765 were the first known in France. The town owes its name to Aredius (popularly St Yrieix) who in the 6th century founded a monastery to which its origin was due.

SAIS (Egyptian Sai), an ancient city of the Egyptian Delta, lying westward of the Thermuthiac or Sebennytic branch of the Nile. It was capital of the 5th nome of Lower Egypt and must have been important from remote times. In the 8th century Sais held the hegemony of the Western Delta, while Bubastite families ruled in the east and the kings of Ethiopia in Upper Egypt. The Ethiopians found their most vigorous opponents in the Saite princes Tefnachthus and his son Bocchoris “the Wise” of the XXIVth Dynasty. After reigning six years the latter is said to have been burnt alive by Sabacon, the founder of the Ethiopian XXVth Dynasty. At the time when invasions by the Assyrians drove out the Ethiopian Taracus again and again, the chief of the twenty princes to whom Esarhaddon and Assur-bani-pal successively entrusted the government was Niku, king of Sais and Memphis. His son (q.v.) was the founder of the XXVIth Dynasty. Although the main seat of government was at Memphis, Sais remained the royal residence throughout this flourishing dynasty. Neith, the goddess of Sais, was identified with Athena, and Osiris was worshipped there in a great festival.

SAISSET, BERNARD (d. c. 1314), French bishop, was abbot of Saint Antonin de Pamiers in 1268. Boniface VIII., detaching the city of Pamiers from the diocese of Toulouse in 1295, made it the seat of a new bishopric and appointed Saisset to the see. Of a headstrong temperament, Saisset as abbot energetically sustained the struggle with the counts of Foix, begun two centuries before, for the lordship of the city of Pamiers, which had been shared between the counts and abbots by the feudal contract of pariage. The struggle ended in 1297 by an agreement between the two parties as to their common rights, and when the pope raised the excommunication incurred by the count, Saisset absolved him in the refectory of the Dominican monastery in Pamiers (1300). Saisset is, however, famous in French history for his opposition to King Philip IV. As an ardent Languedocian he hated the French, and spoke openly of the king in disrespectful terms. But when he tried to organize a, general rising of the south, he was denounced to the king, perhaps by his old enemies the count of Foix and the bishop of Toulouse. Philip IV. charged Richard Leneveu, archdeacon of Auge in the diocese of Lisieux, and