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SMOLLETT

J772

SNAIL

cities to remove the smoky atmosphere which results from the large amount of smoke coming from factories, foundries and innumerable fires is mainly in the direction of perfecting the combustion of the coal used. If coal is heated in a close vessel, the oil, tar and gas formed in the combustion are all driven off consumed, leaving a coke which burns with a smokeless flame, as does also anthracite, which has lost the original volatile matter of the coal by natural processes.

Smoll'ett, Tobias George, a Scotch historian and novelist, was born at Dalquhurn, in 1721. He studied medicine and served an apprenticeship with a doctor and apothecary, afterwards obtaining a medical degree. He went to London in 1739 and attempted to stage his tragedy of The Regicide, but failed, and went as surgeon's mate on The Cumberland, which took part in the expedition to Carthagena in 1741. Both these experiences he describes in Roderick Random. His first publication was Advice, a Satire, in 1746. Roderick Random appeared in 1748 without his name, and was a great success, as was also the Adventures of Peregrine Pickle in 1751. His History of - England from the invasion of Julius Caesar to 1748 was begun in 1756, four volumes being written in 14 months. The continuation of the history, bringing it down to 1764, is better known than the first part, forming the continuation of Hume's history. His Travels through France and Italy were written after a two years' sojourn on the Continent. In Monte Novo near Leghorn, Italy, where he had gone for his health, Smollett wrote his last and best novel, Humphrey Clinker, which was published in 1771. He lived only long enough to hear the first rumors of its success, dying on Oct. 21, 1771. See Hannay's Life in the Great Writers Series.

Smug'gling is bringing goods liable to duty into a country without payment of the government dues; it also is the evasion of taxes on goods by illegal or secret manufacture. Smuggling was carried on largely in early times in England and on the Continent, and the stories of the adventures of those engaged in it form a large part of old romances, as in Scott's Guy Mannering and Redgauntlet. Tea, brandy, silks and tobacco were the articles brought into England by smuggling, at one period half the silks sold paying no duty and three fourths of the tobacco used in Ireland escaping the tax. The introduction of free trade in England made the business unprofitable. The enormous coast of the United States makes the evasion of custom-duties easy, and the long frontier on Canada and Mexico also offers opportunities of introducing contraband goods; but smuggling is carried on largely through the regular channels of trade and under the eyes of the custom-

house inspectors, in spite of very careful watching The schemes for carrying it on are innumerable, women being especially skillful in their evasions. Goods are concealed about the person, as in the hair and in false calves on the legs, in canes and secret pockets and quilted into skirts or vests. Seizures of large amounts are often made, but the hope of success and the profits of one successful venture keep up the practice. The illegal manufacture of spirits has been carried on mainly in the mountainous districts of the south, and the adventures of the revenue-officers in those regions afford considerable material for romance.

Smut (in plants), a common disease of the grains of many cereals, as corn, rye etc., caused by the presence of a parasitic fungus.

See JECIDIOMYCETES.

Smyrna (smer'na), an important seaport in Asiatic Turkey, at the head of the Gulf of Smyrna. The gulf runs inland from the ^Egean Sea for 46 miles. The city climbs up the slopes and nestles at the foot of a steep hill, on the summit of which are the ruins of the ancient Greek Acropolis. * Its population of 350,000 contains a large Turkish element, though numerous other races are represented. It has manufactures of carpets, cotton and woolen goods, pottery, iron-foundries and machine-shops. Its importance, however, is from its commerce, as it has the largest part of the trade of Asia Minor with Europe. It exports raisins, figs, opium, carpets, sponges, licorice, olive-oil, tobacco, walnut-wood, emery and poppy-seed; and "imports cloths, timber, iron, butter, cheese, petroleum, glass and paper. There is a fine harbor, which is entered annually by over 1,600 vessels. Smyrna, originally peopled by Greek immigrants to Asia Minor, became Ionian before 688 B. C., and was one of the great trading-places of the east. The king of Lydia destroyed it in 630 B. C., and it was more than 300 years before it was rebuilt on a new site. Under the Romans it regained its importance, though rivaled by Byzantium, to whose emperors it belonged. Destroyed by Tamerlane in 1402, it was captured by the Turks in 1424.

Snail, a shelled mollusk belonging to the class Gasteropoda. The land-snails are widely distributed and well-known. They are air-breathers, and, feeding upon vegetation, do much injury in gardens. The animal is spirally coiled to fit into its shell. The lower part of the body, called the foot, can be protruded. There are four tentacles or feelers on the head, which can be shortened or extended at will. The longest pair have eyes in their tips. There are slender muscles attached to the apex of the shell and to the animal's foot, by means of which the animal is drawn into its shell. In dry weather or in. winter the opening; is often