Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/521

 SWAN RIVER SWEDEN 501 it is the principal source of the fine down so much prized for muffs and tippets. A black swan, once considered as apocryphal as a white crow, inhabits Australia. The chenopis atrata (Wagl.), of that continent and Tasmania, is black except a few white primaries and a bright red bill ; it is nearly as large as the common swan, and is now not unfrequently seen with it in the parks of Europe and the United States. SWAN RIVER. See WESTEKN AUSTRALIA. SWANSEA (Welsh, Alertawy), a town of Gla- morganshire, Wales, on the W. bank of the river Tawy, where it falls into the bay of Swansea, Bristol channel, 60 m. W. N. W. of Bristol; pop. in 1871, 51,702. It is much re- sorted to for sea bathing. There are extensive anthracite mines in the neighborhood, which, together with the convenience of the port, have made it the principal seat of the cop- per trade of Great Britain. Copper ore is brought hither for smelting from Cuba, North and South America, Australia, &c. There are also iron, tin plate, and zinc works, potter- ies, and ship yards. The port was entered in 1873 by 6,835 British vessels, tonnage 877,241, and 1,165 foreign vessels, tonnage 197,062. There were cleared 6,612 vessels, tonnage 859,619, of which 1,258 were foreign, tonnage 216,527. The exports in the same year were valued at 1,855,712. The exports of coal in the year ending with February, 1875, were 30,592 tons, and the coastwise shipments 17,874 tons. There are extensive docks; the first floating dock was built at Swansea in 1852. Large vessels can come close to the town at flood, but at ebb the harbor is nearly dry. SWEATING SICKNESS, a disease which often prevailed extensively in Europe and Asia du- ring the middle ages, and which still frequent- ly appears in Turkey and other parts of Eu- rope and Asia. The older descriptions of it are somewhat vague, but from the general symptoms it is doubtless the disease which has been accurately described by Rayer and others, and is now called miliary fever, sudatoria, and miliaria, and is defined as "an eruption of innumerable minute pimples with white summits, occurring in successive crops upon the skin of the trunk and extremities, pre- ceded and accompanied with fever, oppression of respiration, and copious sweats of a rank, sour, fetid odor, peculiar to the disease. The base of the pimples and the skin around are red and irritable." Pathologists are not agreed as to its specific nature ; some deny that a peculiar specific disease exists, as in smallpox or scar- latina. The fever which precedes the erup- tion is ushered in by intense chills, oppression of breathing, fainting, and pains in the head, loins, and limbs. In a few hours nausea and profuse sweating come on, but without reliev- ing the other symptoms. The pulse is small and rapid, often hard and irregular. The tongue is coated with a foul yellow fur, and the bowels are constipated. From the 5th or 6th day to the 21st an itching sensation is felt in the mam- mary and epigastric regions and the inner sur- face of the arms, and the skin of those parts be- comes red and rough, with numerous elevations about the size of common pin heads. In a short time the summits of these elevations become pearly white, the cuticle being elevated by a slightly opaque, sero-albuminous fluid. Several crops of elevations break out in succession for from three to seven days, followed by desqua- mation of the cuticle. In severe cases the eruption appears at the junction of the skin and mucous membrane, and is liable to become aphthous. Two forms are recognized, the mild and the malignant, the latter being accompa- nied by violent inflammation of some internal organ, and proving fatal sometimes in two or three days. The treatment consists in cooling drinks, bland diet, and frequent laving and sponging of the cutaneous surface. The dis- ease appeared in England in 1485, just after the battle of Bos worth, and disappeared sud- denly at the beginning of the next year. It attacked people chiefly in the prime of life, and scarcely one per cent, recovered. It appeared again in the summer of 1506, but in a mild form. In July, 1517, it appeared in a very malignant form, sometimes terminating fatally in a few hours. It lasted for six months, and like the preceding epidemics was confined to England. In May, 1528, it again appeared in London. It lingered in the city till the next year, and was so fatal as to receive the name of " the great mortality." It finally extended over the northern half of the continent, and 2,000 persons fell victims to it in 21 days at Hamburg. In 1551 it made its last appearance in England, and continued six months. SWEDBERG, Jesper, a Swedish clergyman, fa- ther of .Emanuel Swedenborg, born at Fahlun, Aug. 28, 1653, died at Brunsbo, July 26, 1735. His father was a copper smelter named Daniel Isaksson. Swedberg took his name from a small family estate. He was educated at Up- sal, and in 1685 was ordained a priest and appointed chaplain to the king's regiment of cavalry life guards. In 1690 he was made pastor of Vingaker, in 1692 professor of the- ology at Upsal, and soon after rector of the university. In 1691 he was one of a commis- sion to revise the Swedish Bible, which work was completed in a year. In 1694 he pub- lished a psalm book, which was suppressed as pietistic. In 1702 Charles XII. made him bishop of Skara in West Gothland, in which office he remained till his death. In 1722 he produced the first Swedish grammar ever printed. About 1732 the Swedish congrega- tions in London, Lisbon, and North America elected him their bishop. SWEDEN (Swedish, Sheriff*), a kingdom of northern Europe, forming with Norway the Scandinavian peninsula, and lying between lat. 55 20' and 69 N., and Ion. 11 10' and 24 10' E. It is bounded N. and W. by Norway, S. W. by the Skager Rack, the Cattegat, and the Sound, S. by the Baltic sea, E. by the Baltic