Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/232

Rh 212 S A L S A L cathedral of St Matthew (whose bones were brought from Paestum to Salerno in 954), begun in 1076 by Robert Guis- card and consecrated in 1084 by Gregory VII. In front is a beautiful quadrangular court (112 by 102 feet), sur- rounded by arcades formed of twenty-eight ancient pillars mostly of granite ; and the middle entrance into the church is closed by a remarkable bronze door of llth or 12th century Byzantine work. The nave and two aisles end in apses. Two magnificent marble ambos, the larger dating from 1175, several specimens of ancient mosaic, and the tombs of Gregory VII. and Queen Margaret of Durazzo deserve to be mentioned. In the crypt is a bronze statue of St Matthew. The lofty aqueduct, one of whose arches is now used by the railway, is a building of 1320 ; the present water-supply is provided by a canal formed in 1865. A fine port constructed by Giovanni da Procida in 1260 was destroyed when Naples became the capital of the king- dom, and remained blocked with sand till after the unifica- tion of Italy. A series of works, especially those decreed in 1 880, have provided an inner harbour of 40 acres (depth 12 to 22 feet), an outer harbour (22 to 25 feet), and wharves to the extent of 4468 feet. In 1884 180 vessels (29,078 tons) entered and 173 (28,069) cleared. Silk and cotton spinning are the principal industries. The population was 19,905 in 1870 and 22,328 (commune, 31,245) in 1881. A Roman colony was founded at Salerno (Salernum) in 194 B.C. to keep the Picentines in check, but the city makes no figure in history till after the Lombard conquest. Dismantled by order of Charle- magne, it became in the 9th century the capital of an independent principality, the rival of that of Benevento, and was surrounded by strong fortifications. The Lombard princes, who had frequently defended their city against the Saracens, succumbed before Robert Guiscard, who took the castle after an eight months' siege and made Salerno the capital of his new territory. The removal of the court to Palermo and the sack of the city by the emperor Henry VI. in 1194 put a stop to its development. The position which the medical school of the Civitas Hippocratica (as it called itself on its seals) held in mediaeval times has been described under MEDICINE, vol. xv. pp. 806-807. Salerno university, founded in 1150, and long one of the great seats of learning in Italy, was closed in 1817. SALES, FRANCOIS DE (1567-1622), see vol. ix. p. 695. SALFORD. See MANCHESTER, vol. xv. p. 459 sq. SALICIN, the bitter principle of willow bark, was dis- covered by Leroux in 1831. It exists in most species of Salix and Pojndus, and has been obtained to the extent of 3 or 4 per cent, from the bark of S. helix and S. pentandra. According to Herberger, the bark of the young branches affords salicin in larger proportion than that of the trunk and contains less of the other ingredients which interfere with its extraction. Salicin is prepared from a decoction of the bark by first precipitating the tannin by milk of lime, then evaporating the filtrate to a soft extract, and dissolving out the salicin by alcohol. As met with in commerce it is usually in the form of glossy white scales or needles. It is neutral to test paper, inodorous, unaltered by exposure to the air, and has a persistently bitter taste. It is soluble in about 30 parts of alcohol or water at the ordinary temperature, and in 0'7 of boiling water or in 2 parts of boiling alcohol, and more freely in alkaline Jiquids. It is also soluble in acetic acid without alteration, but is insoluble in chloroform and benzol. From phloridzin it is distinguished by its ammoniacal solution not becoming coloured when exposed to the air. Cold sulphuric acid dissolves salicin, forming a bright red solution. When salicin is heated with sul- phuric acid and potassium bichromate, salicylic aldehyde (C 7 H 6 2 ) is formed, which possesses the odour of meadow- sweet flowers (Spirsea Ulmaria, L.). Salicin is chiefly used in medicine as an antipyretic in acute rheumatism, for which it is given in doses of 5 to 30 grains. Its action is less powerful than that of SALI- CYLIC ACID (q.v. and its depressing effect on the circulation is less marked. It is also given for headache and for ague. Salicin is a glucoside, having the composition Ci 3 H 18 7, and is not precipitated by the alkaloidal reagents. It has been prepared artificially from helicin, synthesized from sodium, salicyl-aldehyde, and aceto-chlorhydrose, being the first glucoside that has been arti- ficially prepared (Journ. Chcm. Soc., 1884, p. 439). According to Binz, it may be split up by digestion with emulsin or saliva into salicylic alcohol (sali^enol, C-H 8 2 ) and glucose ; heating it gently with dilute sulphuric acid produces a similar effect. Salicylic alcohol is converted by oxidizing agents into salicylic acid. This acid is formed when salicin is taken internally, since salicin is eliminated from the system partly in the form of salicylic and salicyluric acids, and partly as saligenin. SALIC LAW, AND OTHER BARBARIAN LAWS. The (1) Lex Salica is one of those Teutonic laws of the early Middle Ages which are known as leges barbarorum, among which we also reckon the (2) Lex Ripuariorum or Ribuari- orum, (3) Ewa (Lex) Francorum Chamavoi-um, (4) Lex Alamannorum, (5) Lex Bajuvarivrum, (6) Lex Friswnum, (7) Lex Angliorum et Werinorum, h.e., Thuringorum, (8) Lex Saxonum, (9) Leges Anglo-Saxomim, (10) Lex Bur- gundionum, (lOa) Lex Romano, Burgundionum, (11) Lex Wisigothorum, (lla) Breviarium Alarici, (lib) Edictum Tkeodorici, (12) Leges Langobardorum, and to a certain extent (13) Leges Wallix, All these laws may in general be described as codes of procedure and of rights, which regulated for some indefinite period the internal affairs of the several Teutonic tribes whose names they bear. (1) The Salic Law originated with the Salian Franks, often simply called Salians, the chief tribe of that con- glomeration of Teutonic peoples known as FRANKS (q.v.). The latter first appear in history about 240 (Vopisc., Vit. Map of Salic and other Barbarian Countries. Aurel., c. 7), after which date we find them carrying on an almost uninterrupted struggle with the Roman empire, till 486, when they finally established a kingdom of their own in provinces which had previously been considered Roman. The Salian Franks first appear under their specific name in 358, when they had penetrated westwards as far as Toxandria (Texandria, now Tessenderloo, in Limburg, the region to the south and west of the lower Meuse), where they were subdued by the emperor Julian (Ammian., xvii. 8). As regards their previous history nothing is known with certainty, though it seems probable that the Franks who occupied the Batavian island c. 290, and were there conquered in 292 by Constantius Chlorus (Paneg. incerti auth., c. 4), and thence transplanted into Gaul, were the Salian Franks. We find, moreover, such un