Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/455

 S P S P 431 SPORADES, the islands "scattered" (as the name, from a-rreipeiv, " to sow," imports) about the Greek Archi- pelago, are distinguished on the one hand from the Cyclades, which are grouped around Delos, and on the other from the islands attached, as it were, to the mainland of Europe and Asia. The distinction is not in either case a very definite one, and hence both ancient and modern writers differ as to the list of the Sporades. Details of classifi- cation are given by Bursian (Griechenland, ii. 348 sq.). The Doric Sporades Melus (MELOs), 1 Pholegandrus, Sicinus, THERA, Anaphe, Astypalzea, and Cos were by some considered a southern cluster of the Cyclades. In modern times the name Sporades is rnore^ especially applied to two groups the Northern Sporades', which lie north-east of Negropont (Euboea), along with which they constitute a nomarchy of the kingdom of Greece; and the Southern Sporades, lying off the south- west of Asia Minor, and included in the Turkish vilayet of the "Islands of the White Sea." The Northern, which have altogether an area of 180 square miles and a population of 13,394 (1879), comprise Skiatho, Khiliodromi or Ikos, Skopelo, Pelagonisi, Giura, Pipari, and Skiro (SCYE.OS), with their adjacencies. The Southern are as follows : Icaria, PATHOS, Leros, Calymno, Astypataa (Stampalia), Cos (Stanko), Nisyros, Tilos or Episcopi, Sime, Khalki, RHODES, CRETE, and a multitude of lesser isles. SPORTS, THE BOOK OF, or more properly the DECLARA- TION OF SPORTS, was issued by James I. in 1617 on the recommendation of Thomas Morton, bishop of Chester, for use in Lancashire, where the king on his return from Scotland found a conflict on the subject of Sunday amuse- ments between the Puritans and the gentry, many of whom were Roman Catholics. Permission was given for dancing, archery, leaping, vaulting, and other harmless recreations, and of " having of May games, Whitsun ales, and morris dances, and the setting up of May-poles and other sports therewith used, so as the same may be had in due and con- venient time without impediment or neglect of divine service, and that women shall have leave to carry rushes to church for the decorating of it." On the other hand, "bear and bull baiting, interludes, and (at all times in the meane sort of people by law prohibited) bowling" were not to be permitted on Sunday (Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 483). In 1618 James transmitted orders to the clergy of the whole of England to read the declaration from the pulpit; but so strong was the opposition that he prudently withdrew his command (Wilson, in Kennet, ii. 709; Fuller, Church History, v. 452). In 1633 Charles I. not only directed the republication of his father's declaration (Rush- worth, ii. 193) but insisted upon the reading of it by the clergy. Many of the clergy were punished for refusing to obey the injunction. With the fall of Laud all attempt to enforce it necessarily came to an end. SPOTSWOOD, or SPOTISWOOD, JOHN (1565-1639), archbishop of St Andrews, was the son of John Spotswood, minister of Calder and " superintendent " of Lothian, and was born in 1565. He was educated at Glasgow, and suc- ceeded his father in the parish of Calder when but eighteen years of age. In 1601 he attended Ludowick, duke of Lennox, as his chaplain, in an embassy to the court of France, and returned in the duke's retinue through Eng- land. In 1603 he was nominated by the king to the see of Glasgow, but his consecration (in London) did not take place until October 1610. In 1615 he was translated as successor of Gladstanes to St Andrews, and thus became primate and metropolitan of Scotland. In this capacity he presided in several assemblies of the Church of Scotland. 1 The names of those Sporades which are treated under separate headings are printed in small capitals. At that of Perth, in 1618, over which he presided, he used his influence to obtain a reluctant assent to the Five Articles. He continued in high esteem with James VI. and Charles I., who was crowned by him in 1633 at Holyrood. In 1635 Spotswood was advanced to the chan- cellorship, but the increasing strength of the Covenanters compelled his resignation in 1638. He was deposed and excommunicated by the Glasgow assembly in that year; charges affecting his moral character were brought against him, but no attempt was made to substantiate these. He died in London on 26th December 1639 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. In 1620 he published Rcfutatio Libelli de Regimine Ecclesiie Scoticanas an answer to a tract of Calderwood, who replied in the Vindidse subjoined to his Altare Damascenum. The only other writing of Spotswood published during his lifetime was the sermon he preached at the Perth assembly. His most considerable work appeared posthumously The History of the Church and State of Scotland, beginning the year of our Lord 203 and continued to the end of the reign of James VI. of ever blessed memory, London, 1655, fol. It displays considerable research and sagacity, and even when dealing with contemporary events gives a favourable impression, upon the whole, of the author's candour and truth. An appendix was afterwards added by Thomas Middleton. Spotswood left two sons, Sir John Spotswoode of Dairsie in Fife, where the archbishop erected a church and bridge, which are still extant, and Sir Robert, a lawyer of great learning, who became president of the Court of Session, and was executed in 1646 for taking part in the expedition of Montrose. SPOTTISWOODE, WILLIAM (1825-1883), mathe- matician and physicist, was born in London, llth January 1825. His father, Andrew Spottiswoode, who was de- scended from an ancient Scottish family, represented Colchester in parliament for some years, and in 1831 became junior partner in the firm of Eyre & Spottiswoode, printers. William was educated at Laleham, Eton, Harrow, and Balliol College, Oxford. His bent for science showed itself while he was still a schoolboy, and indeed his re- moval from Eton to Harrow is said to have been occasioned by an accidental explosion which occurred whilst he was performing an experiment for his own amusement. At Harrow he obtained in 1842 a Lyon scholarship, and at Oxford in 1845 a first-class in mathematics, in 1846 the junior and in 1847 the senior university mathematical scholarship. In 1846 Spottiswoode left Oxford to take his father's place in the business, in which he was engaged until his death. In 1847 he issued five pamphlets entitled Malitationes Analytics. This was his first publication of original mathematical work; and from this time scarcely a year passed in which he did not give to the world further mathematical researches. In 1856 Spottiswoode travelled in eastern Russia, and in 1860 in Croatia and Hungary; of the former expedition he has left an interesting record entitled A Tarantasse Journey through Eastern Russia in the Autumn of 1856 (London, 1857). In 1870 he was elected president of the London Mathematical Society. In 1871 he began to turn his attention to experimental physics, his earlier researches bearing upon the polarization of light and his later work upon the electrical discharge in rarefied gases. He wrote a popular treatise upon the former subject for the "Nature" series (1874). In 1878 he was elected president of the British Association, and in the same year president of the Royal Society, of which he had been a fellow since 1853. He died of fever on 27th June 1883, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. As a mathematician he occupied himself with many branches of his favourite science, more especially with higher algebra, in- cluding the theory of determinants, with the general calculus ( symbols, and with the application of analysis to geometry and mechanics. The following brief review of his mathematical work is quoted from the obituary notice which appeared in the Proceed- ings of tJie Royal Society (vol. xxxviii. p. 34): "The interesting series of communications on the contact of curves and surfaces which are contained in the Philosophical Transactions of 1862 and