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STA was born at Anspach in 1660. He studied medicine at Jena under Professor Wedel, and graduated as M.D. in 1683. Three years later he was appointed physician to the duke of Weimar. In 1694 he was called to the second medical chair at the newly-founded university of Halle. In 1716 he removed to Berlin as physician to the king of Prussia, and in that city he died in 1734, aged seventy-four. As a teacher of medicine, Stahl led a reaction against the mere mechanical views of physiology and pathology upheld by Boerhaave and the iatro-mathematicians. He resolved all diseases into the actions of the soul, and asserted that the duty of a medical man is to second and moderate nature in her efforts at self-cure. The chemical views of Stahl, on which his fame mainly rests, maybe found in his "Opusculum Chymico-physico-medicum," Halle, 1715; "Chymia rationalis et experimentalis," Berlin, 1720; "Fundamenta Chymiæ," Berlin, 1720; "Experimenta, Observationes, Animadversiones," Berlin, 1731. Besides these works he wrote a treatise on sulphur, one on salts, and published an edition of Becher's Physica subterranea, with notes. His style is, perhaps, the very worst ever written by a German in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is a confused mixture of German and Latin, both equally barbarous. The main feature of his chemistry is the hypothesis of phlogiston, put forward to explain the facts of combustion and calcination, or, as we now term it, oxidation. All metals and all combustibles he considered as compounds, containing one common ingredient, phlogiston. By the action of heat the phlogiston is dissipated, and the other constituents remain behind in the form of an acid, as in the case of sulphur or phosphorus; of a calx in the case of the common metals; or of ashes, as in the case of wood or coal. When metallic oxides are reduced to metal by heating along with any carbonaceous matter, it was said that the latter gave a fresh supply of phlogiston, which combined with the calx. If it be asked what is phlogiston, the reply was not very satisfactory. Stahl never professed to have obtained it in a state of purity, but considered that lamp-black made the nearest approach. He represents it as a dry substance, of an earthy nature, whose particles are exceedingly subtile, and liable to be agitated and set in motion with wonderful velocity. This peculiar kind of motion is called by Stahl motus verticillaris. We may trace in this doctrine some approach to the chemical views of Swedenborg (see Principles of Chemistry, by the latter; London, Newberry). The disciples of Stahl, when hard pressed by opponents, shifted their ground, and pronounced phlogiston to be hydrogen, or even the "essential principle of fire," whatever that may be. It is worthy of note that Stahl was perfectly aware of the increase of weight which metals undergo in calcination. But this fact, though in reality fatal to the whole doctrine, did not strike Stahl as an objection. He did not employ the balance in experimentation. His successors got over the difficulty by suppositions so monstrous, that we can scarcely understand how they could for a moment be entertained by a man of intelligence. Some even declared phlogiston to be not merely without weight, but to possess a minus weight, and consequently render bodies lighter by combining with them, and heavier by leaving thein. The various metallic oxides or calces came of course to be regarded as undecomposable or elementary bodies, and this, in the opinion of Dumas, is the greatest service which Stahl rendered to science—the rejection of the "four elements" of antiquity, and the three of the alchemists, in favour of something definite. Stahl's views present a typical specimen of the "metaphysical state" of science—the explanation of phenomena by means of some imaginary principle. The phlogistian theory was for a time useful in giving a definite direction to research, and only became hurtful when upheld by blind zeal in opposition to plain facts. The clearest and fullest view of the doctrines of Stahl may be found in the Conspectus Chemiæ of Juncker, 1730. Stahl's character was morose, crabbed, and disagreeable as his style.—J. W. S.  * STAHR,, a distinguished German philologist and author, was born at Prenzlau, 22nd October, 1805. He devoted himself to classical learning at Halle, where, in 1826, he obtained a mastership in the Pædagogium. In 1836 he was called to a professorship at Oldenburg, from which he retired in 1852, and then settled at Berlin, where he has married (in second marriage) Miss Fanny Lewald, and unremittingly devotes himself to literary labours. He first made himself favourably known by his Aristotelia, Halle, 1830-32, 2 vols., and his edition of Aristotle's Politics; but by degrees he left the classical studies and turned to the history of literature and the fine arts. His "Year in Italy," his "Republicans at Naples," his "Torso," and his "Life of Lessing" have met with great success, and promise him a more general and more lasting renown than his philological works.—K. E.  STAINER or STAYNER,, an English naval officer, who distinguished himself by several gallant exploits during the Commonwealth. In 1656, with only three frigates under his command, he attacked a Spanish squadron of eight sail, and after a fierce conflict, captured two, having £600,000 sterling on board, burnt one, and drove the rest on shore. In the following year he served under Admiral Blake, in the celebrated attack upon six Spanish galleons, richly laden, which lay moored off the town of Santa Cruz, protected by the forts which flank the anchorage. These vessels were all destroyed, with the loss on the part of the English of only forty-eight men killed, and one hundred and twenty wounded. For his share in this gallant exploit, which the Spaniards affirmed had been performed by devils, and not by men, Captain Stainer was knighted by Cromwell (June 11, 1657), and soon after made vice-admiral. At the Restoration he was sent along with Admiral Montagu to bring over Charles II., by whom he was knighted, and made rear-admiral of the fleet. He died in 1662.—J. T.  STAINER or STEINER,, a celebrated violin-maker, was born in 1620 at Absom, a small village of the Tyrol. He was an apprentice of the celebrated Amati, whose daughter he married. The date of his death is uncertain. His instruments were not highly valued till after his death, since which time to the present period they have produced very considerable prices. The Stainer violins, compared with the Amatis, are high and narrow, and the box more confined; the sound holes are cut more perpendicular, and are shorter; there is also a kind of notch at the turn. The varnishes of the Amatis and Stainers are yellow, as well as those of Stradivarius the elder; the son's varnish is red. The Amatis have a mild and sweet tone; the Stainers a sharp and piercing tone.—(See .)—E. F. R.  STAIR,. See.  STAMITZ,, or , a musician, was born at Deutschbrod in Bohemia in 1719; he is stated to have died in Mannheim in 1761, and in another account, to have removed thence to Munich with the other members of the electoral chapel, and to have died there about 1770. He was the son of a schoolmaster, and was almost self-taught in violin playing and in composition, in both of which he was much distinguished. In 1745 he was appointed concert-master and director of the instrumented chamber music to the elector at Mannheim; and he was the founder of the style of violin playing long known as the Mannheim school. He wrote concertos for his instrument, and many pieces of chamber music; but he is chiefly important in the history of the art, on account of his orchestral symphonies, which form a link between the suites of Bach and the symphonies of Haydn, and the latter master is supposed to have profited greatly from the example of those compositions. Stamitz left two sons—Carl, famous as a player on the viol d'amore, and Anton, esteemed as a violinist—both successful composers.—G. A. M.  STANBRIDGE,, an eminent schoolmaster and grammarian, was born at Heyford, Northamptonshire, about the middle of the fifteenth century, and was educated at Winchester school, and at New college, Oxford. He was the author of a great number of elementary books, among which were "Embryon relincatum, sive vocabularium metricum;" Parvularum Institutiones; Accidentia Stanbridge, &c. He died after 1522.—F.  STANDISH,, the military leader of the first puritan settlers of New England, was a cadet of the old family of that name, and born probably about 1565. He fought in the expedition sent by Queen Elizabeth to aid the Dutch. He afterwards, though not a member of their church, "settled with the English refugees at Leyden," and sailed with the Pilgrim Fathers in the Mayflower in 1620. When the settlement at Plymouth was begun he was unanimously chosen captain or chief military commander, and in his many conflicts with the Indians displayed much more vigour than mercy. He died in 1656, at a very advanced age. The tradition of his matrimonial disappointment has been made the theme of a poem of Longfellow's—The Courtship of Miles Standish. There is a full account of him in Belknap's American Biography.—F. E. <section end="312H" /> <section begin="312Zcontin" />STANFIELD,, R.A., was born at Sunderland in 1798. As an artist his main reliance was on himself. His youth was spent on board ship, and he thus acquired an <section end="312Zcontin" />