Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/502

 482 SUNFLOWER 6 ft. high, and producing late in summer an abundance of flowers, which in the double form have a close resemblance to the flowers of the dahlia. H. argophyllus of Texas, with hoary white foliage, and //. orgyralis of the far west, with narrow gracefully recurved leaves, are both sometimes cultivated for the peculiari- tfcfl of their foliage. Numerous species, of interest to the botanist only, are to be found in all parts of the country, especially on the western prairies. The species cultivated for its edible tubers as Jerusalem artichoke (H. tuberosus) is described under ARTICHOKE. SUNFLOWER, a N. W. county of Mississippi, intersected by the Sunflower river ; area, 720 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 5,015, of whom 3,243 were colored. Since the census a portion has been set off to form Leflore co. The surface is level and swampy, and the soil highly fertile. The chief productions in 1870 were 155,672 bushels of Indian corn, 21,091 of sweet pota- toes, and 7,028 bales of cotton. There were 839 horses, 849 mules and asses, 1,728 milch cows, 8,497 other cattle, 184 sheep, and 7,828 swine. Capital, Johnson ville. SIXGARIA, or Dzungaria. See TURKISTAN. SUMA (Arabic, custom or rule), a collection of oral traditions of the sayings and practices of Mohammed and his wives, companions, and immediate successors. The believers in them are called Sunnis. They are considered the orthodox Mohammedans, and comprise the four sects of Hanifites, Malekites, Shafeites, and Hanbalites, named after their founders, all of whom recognize the Sunna as of a value second only to that of the Koran, which the Shiahs deny. (See SHIAHS.) The Sunna is also known under the name Hadis, "Tradition." While the Shiahs constitute at present the majority of the Persian and Hindoo Moham- medans, the Sunnis, and among them espe- cially the Malekites and Shafeites, are domi- nant in the Ottoman empire, Arabia, Turkis- tan, and Africa. SUNSTROKE (Lat. solis ictus; Fr. coup de soleil; Ger. Sonnenstich; also called insola- tion, heat apoplexy, heat asphyxia, and solar asphyxia), an affection which suddenly attacks persons exposed to the continuous hot rays of the sun or other sources of heat. The symp- toms vary considerably, according to the ex- tent and nature of the injury. The patient is usually attacked in the midst of his employ- ment, although sometimes he is not seized till in the night, especially if occupying heated and badly ventilated quarters. There is loss of consciousness, and generally stertorous breath- ing and convulsions, and in the worst cases there is extreme prostration of the vital pow- ers, and the voluntary muscles are motionless from the paralyzed condition of the nervous system, the greatly impeded functions of res- piration and circulation being the only signs of life. The attack usually comes on in the afternoon, partly because this is the hottest part of the day, and also because the subject SUNSTROKE has generally been laboring for many hours, and his vital powers are more or less exhausted. The attack may be immediately preceded by premonitory symptoms, such as pain and a feeling of fulness in the head and oppression at the pit of the stomach, sometimes attended with nausea and vomiting, and a feeling of weakness in the lower extremities, vertigo, and dimness of vision. In 60 cases reported to the New York hospital by Dr. H. S. Swift ("New York Journal of Medicine," 1854), surrounding objects appeared of a uniform color, generally blue or purple, but sometimes red, and at others green. In light cases the insensibility may be momentary, but in se- vere cases the patient rapidly becomes as- phyxiated or comatose. The pupils are some- times dilated and sometimes contracted, and there may be dilatation and contraction at different stages in the same case. There is considerable and often very great increase in the temperature of the body. In cases ob- served at Bellevue hospital, New York, in July, 1868, it frequently rose to 109'5 F., and in one instance to 110 - 5; and still higher tem- peratures are recorded. When it reaches 107 recovery is scarcely to be expected, although it took place in the one instance at Bellevue where it reached 110'5. Vomiting during the unconscious period, and involuntary evacuation of the bowels, are very grave symptoms. Al- though in many cases, as has been observed, the symptoms vary with the extent of the le- sions, in the more pronounced cases they are rather uniform, the patient being completely without sensation or motion, except that of respiration, which is stertorous, though less than in true apoplexy. The eyes are fixed and turned upward with a glassy appearance ; the pupils are greatly contracted, and the conjunc- tive are congested. Sometimes the whole sys- tem of voluntary muscles will be convulsed, and more rarely the patients appear to be in a state analogous to somnambulism ; but the more fatal cases are often entirely free from motion of the voluntary muscles. In reports of cases occurring in the British army in India, by Mr. Longmore, in which he designated foul air of badly ventilated quarters as an active cause, the pathological conditions found after death were markedly more those of asphyxia than of congestive apoplexy, there being ex- cessive engorgement of the lungs, while the cerebral congestion was decidedly less. The blood remains nncoagulated after death, show- ing a loss of life in its organic constituents. Thus, the post-mortem appearances accord with the symptoms, illustrating, as Mr. Barclay has pointed out, the four different ways in which death may take place, and furnish a key to the rational treatment of the different cases. 1. The intense heat of the sun's rays, pour- ing down upon the head, combined with great bodily exertion, may produce a state similar to that of nervous concussion from accident, and death may take place more or less sud-