Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/140

 132 SNELL sides of the soft palate over the hack of the tongue, so that the blast of air, by a convul- sive movement, passes through the nose with more or less noise instead of through the in.. nth. It may be excited by acrid vapors, irritating liquids or solids, diseased secretions, or the simple entrance of air when the bchnei- derian membrane is peculiarly irritable. NULL, Wilkbrord, a Dutch mathematician, born in Leyden in 1591, died there, Oct. 81, 1626. He studied law, but devoted himself principally to mathematics. When 17 years old he published an essay in which he endeav- ored to restore a lost treatise of Apollonius. He travelled in Germany, and won the friend- ship and esteem of Kepler. In 1613 he suc- ceeded his father as professor in the univer- sity of Leyden. He was the first to make a trigonometrical measurement of an arc of a meridian, and thence to calculate the size of the earth. His result was erroneous, on ac- count of the imperfection of the instruments then in use; but he himself discovered the errors. He also discovered the law of the re- fraction of light (see LIGHT, vol. x., p. 438), and improved the methods of approximating to the ratio of the radius to the circumfer- ence of the circle. His most important work is Eratotthene* Bataviu, sive de Terra Am- bitus vera Quantitate (Leyden, 1617). SPELLING, JosUb, an American soldier, born in Boston in 1782, died in Washington, D. C., Aug. 20, 1828. He was appointed a lieutenant in the 4th infantry in 1808, became captain in 1809, distinguished himself in the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, and was made brevet ma- jor for services at the battle of Brownstown, Aug. 9, 1812. In 1814 he was made inspector general with the rank of colonel, and was prominent in the affair of Lyon's creek. In 1819 he was made colonel of the 5th infantry. He was a witness against Hull at his trial, and wrote "Remarks on General William Hull's Memoirs of the Campaign of the Northwest- ern Army, 1812" (8vo, Detroit, 1825). sNKIHKN, Nicholas, an American clergyman, born at Fresh Pond (now Glen Cove), Long Island, N. Y., Nov. 16, 1769, died in Princeton, Ind., May 30, 1845. In 1794 he entered the Itinerant ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, travelled and preached for four years in Connecticut, Vermont, and Maine, labored at Charleston, 8. 0., for a year or more, and thence was ordered to Baltimore, where he attended the general conference in May, 1800, find took a prominent part in favor of limiting the episcopal prerogative, a delegated general conference (his plan for which was finally adopted in 1808), and a preachers' anti-slavery tract society, and against the future admission of any slaveholder into the church. He after- ward travelled with Bishop Asbury as his pri- vate wcretary. In 1804-'6 he was stationed in New York, whence he removed to his farm on Longanore, Frederick co., Md. By his mar- riage he became the holder of slaves, whom SNIPE he emancipated as soon as the law would per- mit (1820). From 1809 to 1814 he was again an itinerant, and was stationed successively in Baltimore, Georgetown, Alexandria, and on the circuit of his farm residence. While in Georgetown he was elected chaplain to con- gress. In 1829 he removed to Indiana. He was the first to introduce camp meetings into Maryland and New York. In 1821 he began to write in favor of lay representation. The refusal of this right by the general conference in 1828, and the expulsion from the church of many of its advocates, led to the formation of the Methodist Protestant church, in which Mr. Snethen bore a prominent part, and in connection with which he continued to travel and preach after his removal to the west till a short time before his death. He published "Lectures on Preaching the Gospel" (1822), "Essays on Lay Eepresentation " (1835), and "Lectures on Biblical Subjects" (1836). A volume of his sermons, edited by Worthing- ton G. Snethen, was published in 1846. SNEYDERS. See SNYDERS. SNIPE, a group of wading birds, of the sub- family scolopacincB. It is characterized by a long, straight, slender bill, obtuse and flexible, covered with a soft, sensitive skin, abundantly supplied with nerves toward the end; the upper mandible the longest, somewhat bent down at the end, and grooved on the sides, in which the nostrils are placed ; the tongue long, slender, and pointed at the end, the oesophagus narrow, and the stomach very muscular ; eyes far back in the head; wings moderate and pointed ; tail short and rounded ; legs short, feathered lower down than in most waders ; hind toe small, elevated, but reaching the ground, the anterior long and slender, and free except in the genus macroramphus. Snipes are migratory and small, going north to breed ; they frequent marshy places and the margins of rivers and ponds, where they probe the soft mud perpendicularly with the bill in search of worms, insects, and larvse ; the nest is a slight hollow on the ground, lined with grass and sedge, and the eggs, usually four, are placed with the pointed end inward ; the young are able to leave the nest as soon as hatched ; the flesh is considered a great delicacy. The subfamily includes the genera macroramplms (Leach), gallinago (Leach), rhynchcea (Cuv.), scolppax (Linn.), and philoJiela (Gray), of which the last two will be noticed under WOOD- COCK. In macroramphus the wings are long and pointed, with the first and second quills equal ; _the tarsi are longer than the middle toe, which is united to the base of the outer by a short web. The species are found in Europe and North America, occurring in large flocks near the sea, feeding on small mollusks, worms, and insects; they fly rapidly and irregularly with a quivering whistle. The gray or red- breasted snipe (M. grisem, Leach) is about 10 in. long and 18 in. in alar extent, the bill 21 in., and weighs 3 oz. ; the prevailing colors above