Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/669

 SUMSUM 641 SUMBAL, or SUMBUL,' also called MUSK ROOT, a drug recently introduced into European medical practice. It consists of the root of Ferula Sumbv-l, Hook., a tall Um- belliferous plant found in the north of Bokhara, its range apparently extending beyond the Amur. It was first brought to Russia in 1835 as a substitute for musk; it was subsequently recommended as a remedy for cholera, and in 1867 was introduced into the British pharmacopoeia. The root as found in commerce consists of transverse sec- tions an inch or more in thickness and from 1 to 3 or more inches in diameter. It has a dark thin papery bark, a .spongy texture, and the cut surface is marbled with white and blackish or pale brown ; it has a musky odour and a bitter aromatic taste. Sumbal is used in medicine as an antispasmodic and stimulating tonic, especially in nervous diseases. It owes its medicinal properties to a balsamic resin and an essential oil. Of the former it contains about 9 per cent, and of the latter one-third per cent. The resin is soluble in ether and has a musky smell, which is not fully developed until after contact with water ; by dry dis- tillation it yields umbelliferone, C t ,H (i 3, a crystalline sub- stance soluble in water, ether, and chloroform, and produc- ing in an alkaline solution a brilliant blue fluorescence, which is destroyed by the addition of an acid in excess. Under the name of East Indian suinbal, the root of Dorcma ammoniacum, Don., has occasionally been offered in English com- merce. It is of a browner hue, lias the taste of aminoniacnm, and uives a much darker tincture than the genuine drug ; it is thus isily detected. The name "sumbal" (a word of Arabic origin, signifying a spike or ear) is applied to several fragrant roots in the East, the principal being Xardostaclnjs Jadnnansi, D.C. (see SPIKE- NARD). West African suinbal is the root of a species of Cypfnis. SUMBAWA (properly SAMBA WA or SAMAWA), an island of the East Indian Archipelago, one of the Sunda group, lies between 8 6' and 9 3' S. lat. and 116 47' and 119' 12' E. long., to the east of Lombok, from which it is sepa- rated by the narrow Alias strait. Its area is estimated at 5186 square miles. The population was computed to number about 150,000 in 1887. The deep Bay of Salee or Sumbawa on the north divides the island into two penin- sulas, and the isthmus is further reduced by the narrower Bay of Tjempi (Chempi) entering from the south. The eastern peninsula is deeply indented by the Bay of Bima. The Avhole surface of Sumbawa is mountainous : G. Xy- cnges, in the western peninsula, is 5560 feet high, and G. Tambora, in the eastern, which is said to have lost a third of its elevation in the eruption of 1815, is still 8697 feet high. There are no navigable streams. The climate and productions are not unlike those of Java, though the rains are heavier, the drought more severe, and the fertility less. Sulphur, arsenic, asphalt, and petroleum are the mineral products. Mohammedanism prevails throughout the island, except among certain mountain tribes. Sumbawa is divided into four independent states, Sumbawa proper, Dompo, Saugar, and Bima. Two other states on the northern extremity of the island were so devastated by the Tambora eruption of 1815 that their territory, after lying for long uninhabited, was in 1866 divided between Dompo and Sangar. Sumbawa proper occupies the western peninsula. The residence of the sultan is Sumbawa, 2 miles from the coast of the great bay, in 8 32' S. lat. and 117 20' 33" E. long. It is surrounded with palisade and ditches. The inhabitants of this state employ sometimes the Malay and sometimes the Macassar character in writing. A considerable trade is carried on in the export of horses, buffaloes, goats, dinding (dried flesh), skins, birds' nests, wax, rice, katjang, sappamvood, &c. Sumbawa entered into treaty relations with the Dutch East India Company in 1674. Dompo is the western half of the eastern penin- sula. The capital of the state, Dompo, lies in the heart of the country, on a stream that falls into Tjempi Bay. Bada, the sultan's residence, is farther west. Sangar occupies the north-western promontory of the island, and Bima the extreme east. Bima or Bodjo, the chief town of the latter state, lies on the east side of the Bay of Bima ; it has a stone-walled palace and a mosque, as well as & Dutch fort. The population of Bima is curiously divided into twelve guilds or castes (dari). In the town is a Government Christian school dating from 1874. SUMMARY JURISDICTION. By a court of summary jurisdiction is meant a court in which cases are heard and determined by a justice or justices of the peace, without the intervention of a jury. Such a court has duties to perform of two different kinds. It either hears and de- termines a case in a judicial capacity, or it acts rather in a ministerial capacity where a prima facie case has been established, as by issuing a warrant of distress for non- payment of poor rate, or by committing an accused person for the decision of a higher court, generally assizes or quarter sessions. It is to the court acting in the former capacity that the term " court of summary jurisdiction " more strictly applies. Ever since the first institution of justices of the peace (see JUSTICE OF THE PEACE), the tendency of English legislation has been to enlarge their jurisdiction and to enable offences of a less heinous nature to be tried in their courts without a jury. This inroad upon the functions of the jury can only be made by legisla- tion. " The common law is a stranger to it, unless in the case of contempts," says Blackstone. At common law all offences must be proceeded against by indictment, and an indictment can only be tried before a jury. Even Avhere an offence is created by statute and is unknown to the common law the procedure must be by indictment, unless the statute creating the offence or some other statute specially makes it summary. The history of the gradual growth of summary jurisdiction will be found in Stephen, History of the Criminal Law, vol. i. chap. iv. The summary jurisdiction exercised by justices is the only one of much practical importance. It is unnecessary to do more than mention in passing the two other kinds named by Black- stone, that of the commissioners of taxes for revenue offences and that of the superior courts for CONTEMPT OF COURT ('/.*'.). A very remarkable case of the latter is the power given to a judge by 12 Geo. I. c. 29, s. 4, to summarily sentence to seven years' penal servitude a solicitor practising after conviction for perjury, forgery, or barratry. The principal Acts now dealing with summary jurisdiction are the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1848 l (11 and 12 Viet, c. 43), one of what are called Jervis's Acts, and the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879 (42 and 43 A T ict. c. 49). The former consolidated the law up to that time of a large number of Acts, but only to a certain extent, for a considerable number of previous enactments dealing in a greater or less degree with this subject are still law, the earliest being 5 Hen. IV. c. 10. It also amended the law in several im- portant particulars. The amendment was in the direction of greater simplicity of procedure, and related to both criminal and only quasi- criminal matters. The procedure under the Act is shortly this. In all cases where an information is laid or complaint made the justices are, on proof of a jjrima facie case, to issue a SUMMONS (q.v.). An information is laid in criminal matters in which the decision of the justices, if adverse to the defendant, would be a conviction. A complaint is made where the decision of the justices in such an event would be an order for the payment of money or otherwise in what may be cajled only quasi-criminal matters, c.tj., claims under the Employers and Workmen Act. If the summons is disobeyed, a warrant may (in criminal charges only) issue in the first instance at the discretion of a justice. The warrant is good only within the local jurisdiction of the justice issuing it ; and, if it is required to be executed in another jurisdiction, it must be backed, i.e., endorsed, by a justice of that jurisdiction (unless in case of a fresh pursuit, when it is good for 7 miles beyond the bounds of the jurisdiction in which it was issued). Complaints need not be in writing ; informations usually are, though the Act does not make writing necessary. Where a warrant issues in the first instance, the information must be upon oath. In all cases not otherwise provided for, the information must be laid or com- plaint made within six calendar months from the time at which the matter of the information or complaint arose. The hearing is in open court, and parties may appear by counsel or solicitor. If both parties appear, the justices must hear and determine the case. If the defendant does not appear, the justices may hear and 1 This name of the Act of 1848 is au example of a title of an Act conferred retrospectively (see STATUTE). The name was given to it by the Act of 1879. In the same way the name of the Scotch Summary Procedure Act, 1864, was changed" to that of the Summary Jurisdic- tion Act, 1864, by the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1881. XXII. 8 1