Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/447

 STUHL-WEISSENBUEG STURGEON 431 with Points" (1821); "Letters to Dr. Miller on the Eternal Generation of the Son of God" (1822) ; " Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews" (2 vols. 8vo, 1827-'8); "Hebrew Chrestomathy" (2 vols., 1829-'30); "Exegeti- cal Essays upon Several Words relating to Fu- ture Punishment" (1830); "Commentary on the Epistle to the Komans" (1832); "Is the Mode of Christian Baptism prescribed in the New Testament?" (1833); "A Grammar of the New Testament Dialect" (1834); "Philo- logical View of Modern Doctrines of Geology" (1836) ; " Hints on the Prophecies " (2d ed., 1842) ; " Commentary on the Apocalypse " (2 vols., 1845); "Critical History and Defence of the Old Testament Canon" (1845); "Com- mentary on Daniel " (1850) ; " Conscience and the Constitution" (1851); "Commentary on Ecclesiastes " (New York, 1851); and "Com- mentary on Proverbs " (1852). He also pub- lished several translations, including " Ele- ments of Interpretation," from the Latin of Ernesti (Andover, 1822) ; "Hebrew Grammar," from the German of Gesenius (1825); with Edward Eobinson, " Greek Grammar of the New Testament," from the German of Wi- ner (1825); and "Discrepancies between the Sabellian and Athanasian Methods of Repre- senting the Doctrine of the Trinity," from the German of Schleiermacher (1835). STCHL-WEISSMBFRG. I. Properly Weissen- burg (Hung. Fejer), a county of S. W. Hungary, bounded E. by the Danube ; area, 1,605 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 196,234, chiefly Magyars. The N. part of the county is mountainous, while the S. is level. Among the products are to- bacco, wine, and marble, and there are sev- eral mineral springs. II. A city, capital of the county (Hung. Szelces-Fejervdr ; Lat. Alba Regid), on the left bank of the Csorgo, near the border of an extensive morass, 38 m. S. W. of Buda ; pop. in 1870, 22,683. The prin- cipal buildings are the cathedral and the epis- copal palace. There are manufactures of woollen and linen goods, hardware, and sev- eral other articles. The kings of Hungary were crowned here down to Ferdinand L, and the cathedra] contains many of their tombs. Four tombs dating from the 13th century, and other relics, were excavated in 1874, including those of a remarkable chapel. STURGEON, the name of cartilaginous fishes of the class of ganoids and family sturionidce. The body is elongated and fusiform, covered with a rough skin protected by five longitu- dinal rows of tubercular plates ; the largest of these rows is along the back, and there is also one on each side, and one from each pectoral to the ventral fins; the plates are flattened, and marked with radiating striae. The head is depressed, and ends in a long triangular snout covered with bony plates; mouth funnel- shaped and protrusible, on the under surface, without teeth, having in front a few depend- ing barbels, evidently organs of touch; gill covers very large and gills free ; pseudo-bran- 768 VOL. xv. 28 chiae and spiracles are present, but no bran- chiostegal rays ; fins well developed, the dorsal and anal opposite and behind the ventrals; tail heterocercal or unsymmetrical, the ver- tebral cord being prolonged into the upper lobe as in the sharks, and strengthened by fulcra along its upper margin; a soft caudal on the under surface of the tail. The vertebral column consists of an undivided soft chorda dorsalis ; the air bladder is very large, com- municating freely with the oesophagus ; there is a spiral valve in the intestine, and a con- glomerate pancreas. They are generally large, and inhabit the northern temperate seas of both coasts of America, eastern Europe, and western Asia, from which they ascend the rivers in spring to spawn, returning to the salt water in autumn ; species are also found in the great American fresh- water lakes, which never descend to the sea. They are oviparous ; the food consists of any soft substances which they stir up from the bottom with their snouts, and of small fish ; they frequently jump out of water. The genus acipenser (Linn.) has the characters of the family. The common stur- geon of Europe (A. sturio, Linn.) attains a length of 6 to 10 ft., and sometimes more ; it is found in the Caspian and Black seas and the rivers opening into them, and sometimes on the coasts of Great Britain and the Baltic ; the flesh is delicate, and is largely consumed in Common European Sturgeon (Acipenser sturio). Russia, fresh, salted, and pickled. A larger species, also found in the seas and rivers of S. E. Europe, is the beluga (A. huso, Linn.), attaining a length of 12 to 15 ft. and a weight of 1,200 Ibs., and occasionally much larger ;_ it ascends the rivers opening into the Caspian and Black seas, with other and smaller species. The flesh is tough ; the sound or air bladder furnishes an abundant supply of isinglass, for which great numbers are caught in Russia. Caviare is also made from the roe of the fe- male, which sometimes constitutes one third of the weight of the fish ; the skin is used for