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 1C2 SOMERVILLE SOffERVlLLE, Mary, a British physicist, born in Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, Scotland, Dec. 26, 1780, died in Naples, Italy, Nov. 29, 1872. She was the daughter of Vice Admiral Sir William Fairfax, and chiefly through her own efforts acquired a thorough education, partic- ularly in mathematics and landscape paint- ing. In 1804 she married Samuel Greig, then Ku^iuii consular agent in London, where she went to reside. Left a widow in 1807, she returned to Edinburgh, and in 1812 married her cousin William Somerville, M. D., who in 1816 was appointed a member of the army medical board, and removed to London. Here she attracted attention by some experiments on the magnetic influence of the violet rays in the solar spectrum, the results of which were published in the "Philosophical Transac- tions" of 1826; and Lord Brougham suggested that she should prepare for the "Library of Useful Knowledge " a summary of the Meca- nique celeste of Laplace, which proved too vo- luminous for its original destination, and was published under the title " Mechanism of the Heavens" (8vo, Cambridge, 1831). This work led to her election as an honorary member of the royal astronomical society, and her bust by Chantrey was placed in their hall. In 1834 she published " The Connection of the Physi- cal Sciences" (9th ed., 1858). In 1835 she received a pension of 200, subsequently in- creased to 300. Soon afterward she went to Italy on account of the health of her hus- band, and there resided during the rest of her life, principally in Florence, Rome, and Na- ples. Her next work was " Physical Geogra- phy" (2 vols., 1848; 6th ed., 1870), a history of the earth in its whole" material organization, and of animal and vegetable life; and her last, " Molecular and Microscopic Science " (2 vols., 1869). She was a member of many foreign societies, and in 1869 received the Victoria medal of the royal geographical society, and in the same year the first gold medal ever award- ed by the Italian geographical society. She warmly favored what are popularly known as " women's rights," and was a member of the general committee for woman suffrage in Lon- don. In her 92d year she read books in the hiirh.T mathematics four or five hours daily, s<>lvil the problems, and to the day of her (K-atli was occupied in the revision and com- pletion of a treatise on the " Theory of Differ- ences." During her last few years she noted down some recollections of her life, which have been published under the title "Personal Beoollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville," by her daughter, Martha Somervillo (8vo, London, 1873). SOMIimu.K, William, :m Enirlisli poet, born at Edstone, Warwickshire, in 1692, died July 19, 1742. He was educated at Winchester school and New college, Oxford, and settled t n a ! -tate in Warwickshire. He Beyond his means, and finally became His "Chase," in blank verse, SOMNAMBULISM t has often been reprinted. He wrote "Field Sports," describing hawking, and " Hobbinol, or Rural Games," a mock heroic poem. SOMMK, a N. department of France, in Pi- cardy, bordering on the departments of Pas- de-Calais, Le Nord, Aisne, Oise, and Seine-In- fe"rieure, and the English channel; area, 2,379 sq. m.; pop. in 1872, 557,015. The surface is generally level, but occasionally diversified. It is divided into two nearly equal portions by the river Somme, which flows through it in a W. N. W. direction. The soil is careful- ly cultivated, but not naturally fertile. Cider is an important product. Cotton, linen, and woollen goods, iron ware, and beet sugar are manufactured. It is divided into the arron- dissements of Amiens, Abbeville, Doullens, Montdidier, and Peronne. Capital, Amiens. SOMMERING, Samnel Thomas yon, a German Shysiologist, born in Thorn, Jan. 18, 1755, ied in Frankfort, March 2, 1830. He studied medicine at Gottingen, and became professor of anatomy at Cassel in 1778, and at Mentz jn 1784. In 1790 he began to practise medicine at Frankfort, and returned to that city in 1820 after spending 15 years in Munich as physician to the king of Bavaria, who ennobled him. His works include Vom Baue des menschlichen Korpers (5 vols., l791-'6; new ed., 9 vols., 1839-'44); De Corporis Humani Fabrica (6 vols., 1794-1801) ; and Ueber das Organ der Seele (1796), teaching that the soul has its seat in a vapor-like fluid in the cavities of the brain. SOMNAMBULISM (Lat. somnus, sleep, and am- "bulare, to walk), literally, the act of walking in sleep, but usually applied to all the movements of a person who while in a condition of sleep acts his dreams. There are three kinds of somnambulism, viz. : 1, simple, where the som- nambulist is apparently in ordinary health, but rises from his bed, walks, runs, or climbs, or sometimes talks or writes, while asleep ; 2, 'morbid, where there is a diseased condition, which admits the manifestation of the duality of the human system, the somnambulist some- times being alternately in the natural and the morbid condition, and frequently while in the latter performing acts of which while awake he is incapable ; and 3, artificial, which is treated under ANIMAL MAGNETISM. The first class of somnambulists are usually persons of nervous temperament, and the phenomena are generally induced in them either by some violent excite- ment, or oftener by a morbid condition of the stomach, late suppers, indigestible food, or the like. Some writers advise the placing a wet cloth before their beds, on which they may step, or waking them suddenly in some other way ; but such a course is fraught with great danger, as the shock may prove fatal, or at least permanently injurious. Morbid somnam- bulism is a condition concerning which we have little positive knowledge, but the phe- nomena of which are often very striking. A shy, diffident girl of 14, for instance, of a ner- vous temperament, but who has exhibited no