Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/685

 SCALD SCALLOP 661 SCALD. See BURNS AND SCALDS. SCALE (Lat. scala, a ladder), a graduated line or slip of wood, ivory, metal, or paper, divided into parts equal or unequal, and used for trans- ferring these parts by dividers in plotting. The most simple scale is that of equal parts, and this may serve not merely for giving propor- tional linear spaces, but also for laying down angles with greater accuracy, the table of chords being referred to to give the propor- tional length of the chord of any angle to the radius of the circle. The common six-inch ivory scale contains several scales, each of which presents a different division of the inch, as into quarters, and one of these into tenths, and each tenth by what is known as the diag- onal scale into 10 parts; other divisions are into 3, 3, 4, 44, 5, and 6 equal parts, one of each of these being divided into tenths, and one of each of the principal divisions into twelfths. These scales are also sometimes fur- nished with trigonometrical lines, as scales of chords, rhumbs, sines, secants, and tangents. (See GUNTER, and SECTOE.) Scales of equal parts have of late been produced in a very convenient and cheap form upon paper, the divisions being of 12 inches, and a 13th inch which is divided into 20, 40, 50, and 60 equal parts. Other scales give different divisions. SCALE, Musical. See Music. daiY. SCALES. See WEIGHING MACHINES. SCALIGER. I. Julius Caesar, an Italian phi- lologist, born, according to his own account, at Riva, on the lake of Garda, April 23, 1484, died in Agen, France, Oct. 21, 1558. He claimed descent from the Scaligeri (or family della Scala), sovereign princes of Verona^from 1260 to 1387, and asserted that he began his classical and medical studies when he was be- tween 30 and 40 years old. This story has been disproved by Scipio Maffei and Tiraboschi. The latter says he was the son of an illumina- tor of Venice, a native of Padua, named Bene- detto Bordone, who assumed the name of Delia Scala, and that the son studied at Padua in his youth. In 1525 Scaliger went to Agen as physician to the bishop of that city, and mar- ried into a noble family. His extraordinary fame as a scholar drew to Agen crowds of literary men. His vanity, however, was equal to his learning, and one of his first publica- tions was a virulent attack upon Erasmus. He wrote Latin poetry and many commenta- ries on the classics, and translated Aristotle's " History of Animals " and other Greek works into Latin. His chief productions are : De Causis LingucB Latina (4to, Lyons, 1540), the first considerable modern treatise on Latin grammar, and Poetices Libri VII. (fol., Lyons, 1561). II. Joseph Justus, the 10th son of the preceding, born in Agen, Aug. 4, 1540, died in Leyden, Jan. 21, 1609. He studied Latin at Bordeaux and under his father, and Greek un- der Turnebus in Paris, and learned the princi- oriental and European languages. He em- braced the reformed religion in }562, became tutor in the family of Louis de la Rocheposay, and travelled extensively. In 1578 he was teaching philosophy at Geneva, but soon after- ward retired to the residence of his patron near Tours. In 1593 he succeeded Justus Lipsius as professor of belles-lettres at the university of Leyden. He was as vain and arrogant as his father, whom he surpassed in erudition, and his latter years were embittered by a contro- versy with Scioppius and others on the pre- tensions of his family, which he had revived. He was never married. His most valuable works were those on chronology, Opus de Emendatione Temporum (fol., Paris, 1583), and Thesaurus Temporum (Geneva, 1609). Two collections of his fragments and conversations were published after his death, under the titles of Scaligerana Prima and Scaligerana Secun- da. A sketch of his life and literary activity has been published by Bernays (Berlin, 1855). SCALLOP, a bivalve of the genus pecten (Tur- ton), having the shell rounded, inequivalve, eared, with the upper margin straight and the hinge without teeth. The lobes of the mantle are widely separated, and include a glandular sac containing a gaseous fluid which enables the light shell to float easily and to change po- sition with the tide ; the mantle is reflected in a sub-marginal fold provided with tentacles, with numerous ocelli or eye spots near the margin. The mouth is jawless and toothless, with a tentacular labial border, the tentacles being short and separate from the branchise; they have only one adductor muscle ; the foot is long and cylindrical ; the branchiae are dis- united on the median line. They rest on the right side; some of the family attach them- selves by a byssus, especially when young, but most are free, living on the bottom of the sea at moderate depths, moving by means of the hatchet-shaped foot and the recoil produced by suddenly opening and shutting the valves. In the common scallop (P. concentricus, Say) the shell is orbicular, the valves convex and nearly closed, with about 20 rounded ribs ; it is dusky horn-colored, with alternating lighter and darker zones ; the interior is shining white tinged with purplish, and grooved to corre- spond to the external ribs; the length and height are about 2 in., and the breadth 1 in. It is abundant about the extremity of Cape Cod, whence it extends southward, being very common on the New Jersey coast; it varies considerably in color, with different degrees of whitish, reddish, and purplish ; it is often handsomely zoned, and was formerly much employed for making card racks, pin cushions, &c. The muscle of the shell forms a delicate article of food. The P. Islandicus (Chemn.) is another American species, larger,, handsomer, redder, with more numerous ribs, and living more to the north ; it is found on the banks of Newfoundland, where it is a favorite food of many fishes, especially the cod. Some of the
 * ' SCALES (of fishes). See COMPARATIVE ANAT-