Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/598

 574 T O S T O parliamentary borough (area 9081 acres) in 1S71 was 130,985, and in 1881 it was 152,394; the population of the borough as adjusted in 1885, which returns only one member, is estimated at 65,000. STOLBERG, or STOLLBERG, an industrial and mining town in Rhenish Prussia, is situated on the Vicht, 7 miles east of Aix-la-Chapelle. It is the centre of a very active and varied industry, exporting its produce to all parts of the world. The leading branch is metal-working, which is here carried on in important zinc, brasw, and iron foundries, smelting- works of various kinds, puddling and rolling works, and manufactories of needles, pins, and other metal goods. The ore is mostly found in the mines around the town, but some is imported from a considerable distance. In or near the town there are also large chemical works, glass- works, a mirror-factory, and various minor establishments. Extensive coal-mines in the neighbourhood provide the enormous supply of fuel demanded by the various indus- tries. The population in 1885 was 11,841. The industrial prosperity of the town was founded in the middle of the 17th century by French religious refugees, who introduced the art of brass-founding. An ancient castle in the town is popu- larly believed to have been a hunting-lodge of Charlemagne. STOLBERG, COUNT CHRISTIAN (1748-1821), German poet, was born at Hamburg on the 15th October 1748. His father, Count Christian Gunther, was a privy councillor in Denmark. Stolberg studied at Gottingen, where he formed one of a " Dichterbund," which afterwards became famous. It included, besides Stolberg and his brother, Boie, Burger, Miller, Voss, Holty, and Leisewitz. In 1777 he became an official in the civil service at Tremsbiittel in Holstein, and married Louise, the countess of Reventlow, whose beauty he had often celebrated in his verses. He resigned his office in 1800, and afterwards lived upon his estate in Schleswig. He died January 18, 1821. Stolberg was not a poet of high originality, but in some of his poems he gave vigorous expression to sincere and ardent feeling. He excelled, too, in the utterance of gentle and delicate sentiment. Much of his work appeared in association with that of his brother, whose genius was bolder and more impressive than his own. They published together a volume of poems in 1779, and Schaus2)ide mit Choren in 1787, their object in the latter work being to revive a love for the Greek drama. The dramas contributed to this volume by Christian Stolberg are Balsazar and Otanes. In 1815 the brothers issued a volume of Vaterliindisclie Gedichte. Christian Stolberg was the sole author of Gcdichte aus dcm Griechischen (1782) and of a translation of the works of Sophocles (1787). All his poetical works are included in the IVerke clcr JBruder Stolberg (20 vols., 1820-25). STOLBERG, COUNT FREDERICK LEOPOLD (1750-1819), the brother of the preceding, was born on the 7th November 1750, at Bramstedt in Holstein. Like his brother he studied at Gottingen, and was a member of the " Dichter- bund." In 1776 he went to Copenhagen as ambassador of the prince-bishop of Liibeck, and in 1789 he was sent to Berlin as the ambassador of the king of Denmark. His first wife, whom he had married in 1782, having died, he married the Countess Sophia von Redern in 1790, and in the following year he was appointed president of the government of the prince-bishop at Eutin. In 1800 he resigned his office, and at Miinster joined the Church of Rome, taking with him all the members of his family except his eldest daughter Agnes, who had married Count Ferdinand von Stolberg- Wernigerode. Stolberg's friends and admirers were astonished by his conversion to the Roman Church, and he was hotly attacked by Voss, whose intervention gave rise to a bitter controversy. After his change of faith Stolberg issued an elaborate Geschichte der Religion Jesu Christi, in which he hardly even attempted to write with impartial judgment. He died near Osna- briick on the 5th December 1819. In association with his brother he published Gcdichte ; Schau- spiele mit, Choren ; and Vaterliindisclie Gedichte. He also wrote lamben (1784), a series of satires on the vices and prejudices of his time; and he translated the Iliad, some of Plato's dialogues, four tragedies of ^Eschylus, and Ossian's poems. Among his prose writings may be mentioned Die Insel, a romance (17S8); Eine Reiscin Dciitschland, der Schweiz, Italian, und Sicilian (1794); and his Lelcii Alfred's dcs Grossen (1815). He was a master of many forms of poetical expression, and in his best period he produced a strong impression on his contemporaries by his passion for nature and freedom. Biographies of Stolberg have been written by Nicolovius, Menge, Wicdel, Hennes, and Jansscn. STOLP, or STOLPE, an ancient trading-town in the bleak coast-plain of eastern Pomerania, Prussia, is situated on the Stolpe, 10 miles from the Baltic Sea and 64 miles to the west of Dantzic. The large church of St Mary, with a lofty tower, dating from the 14th century, the Renaissance castle of the 16th century, now used as a prison, and one of the ancient town-gates restored in 1872 are memorials of the time when Stolp was a prosperous member of the Hanseatic League. The manufacture of amber articles, tobacco and cigars, cigar-boxes, &c., with some iron- founding, linen- weaving, and salmon-fishing in the Stolpe, are the chief industrial occupations of the inhabitants, who also carry on trade in grain, cattle, spirits, fish, and geese. Stolpmiinde, a fishing-village and summer resort, at the mouth of the river, is the port of Stolp. The population of Stolp in 1885 was 22,431 (in 1816 5260), about 600 being Roman Catholics and about 1000 Jews. Stolp, mentioned in the llth century, received town-rights in 1273. From the 14th to the 16th century it was a member of the Hanseatic League. Until 1637, when it passed to Brandenburg, the town was generally in the possession of the dukes of Pomerania. STOMACH. See DIGESTIVE ORGANS. STOMACH, DISEASES OP THE. Only the more com- mon and serious varieties of gastric disease can be here referred to. The majority of them exhibit, as their most marked and sometimes their only feature, the symptoms of DYSPEPSIA (q.v.). Hence the diagnosis of the forms of stomach disease is frequently a matter of much difficulty. Nevertheless a careful consideration of the history and the manifested phenomena of a given case may often lead to a correct identification of its nature. The present notice refers in general terms to the most prominent symptoms which usually characterize the chief gastric disorders. The stomach is liable to inflammatory affections, of which the condition of catarrh, or irritation of its mucous membrane, is the most frequent and most readily recognized. This may exist in an acute or a chronic form, and depends upon some condition, either local or general, which produces a congested state of the circula- tion in the walls of the stomach. Acute Gastric Catarrh may arise from various causes, of which the most important are (1) constitutional conditions, such as the gouty or rheumatic, or an inherited tendency to .irritability of the digestive organs ; (2) errors in diet, particularly excessive quantity, indigestible quality, imperfect mastication, extremes of temperature of the food, toxic agents, especially alcohol, in excess, or food in a state of decomposition ; (3) atmospheric influences, as appears evi- dent from its tendency to occur in very warm or very cold weather or in the case of sudden temperature alternations. The chief change the stomach undergoes affects its mucous membrane, which is in a state of congestion, either throughout or in parts. It is more than probable that this condition produces an alteration in the secreting function of the organ, and that its peptic juices become less potent, the effect of which will be to retard the process of digestion and favour the occurrence of decomposi- tion and fermentation in its contents, thus aggravating the original evil. The symptoms arc those well known as characterizing an acute "bilious attack," consisting in loss of appetite, sickness or nausea, and headache, frontal or occipital, often accompanied with giddiness. The tongue is furred, the breath foetid, and there is pain or discomfort in the region of the stomach, with sour eructa- tions, and frequently vomiting, first of food and then of bilious matter. An attack of this kind tends to subside in a few days, especially if the exciting cause be removed. Sometimes, however, the symptoms recur with such frequency as to lead to. the more serious chronic form of the disease. The treatment bears reference, in the first place, to any known source of irritation, which, if it exist, may be expelled by an emetic or purgative. This, however, is seldom necessary, since vomiting is usually present. For the relief of sickness and pain the sucking