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* STAR ROUTE FRAUDS. 508 STATANT. formed for the purpose of defrauding the Govern- ment by increasing unduly the renunieration of certain mail contractors. The sphere of opera- tions of the combination included 135 mail routes on which the compensation for carrying the mail was increased from .$143, KiO to .$622,- 808. This increase was acc-oniplished by securing numerously signed petitions from the localities interested praying for an increase in the number of trips, after which the schedule time for each trip was shortened. Estimates from the con- tractors largely in excess of the actual cost were allowed, and the profits were alleged to have been divided between the contractors and the members of the ring at Washington. The frauds were brought to light early in Garfield's administra- tion, and the chief participants were prosecuted. Dorsey was tried, but the jury failed to reach a decision. Upon a second trial in 1883 lie was acquitted. IJrady was also tried, but was not convicted. Of all those prosecuted only one was ever punished. The ring was eventually broken up, but not until a number of those interested had acquii'ed fortunes. STARS AND BARS. The popular name ap- plied to the ilag adopted by the Confederate States of America early in 18(11. See Flag. STAR SPANGLED BANNER, The. The national hymn of the United States, written by Francis Scott Key (q.v. ) on board the frigate Surprise during the bombardment of Fort Mc- Henry, Md., by the British, in 1814. He di- rected that the words should be sung to the tune of "Anacreon in Heaven," composed in England by John Stafl'ord Smith between 1770 and 1775. "The Star Spangled Banner" was first sung in a tavern near the Holiday Street Theatre, Balti- more, by Ferdinand Durang. Consult .Johnson, Our Familiar Songs (New York, 1881) ; Fitz- Gerald, Stories of Famous Songs (London, 1898). STARVATION (from starve, AS. steorfan, OHG. siterban-, Ger. sterben, to die, Icel. starf, trouble, toil, work), or Inanition. Emaciation, enfeeblement, lowered vitality, and finally death, resulting from insufficiency of or total depriva- tion of food. The fact is stated, as quoted from Chossat, that death from starvation occurs after the loss of four-tenths of the body weight. The same observer recounts the most prominent phe- nomena during or after the death of animals who were .staired, as follows: (1) Dropsical effusion. ( 2 ) Softening and destruction of the mucous mem- brane, (3) Blackening of the viscera, especially of the liver. (4) Bluish, livid, yellow, and red- dish stains during life in the transparent parts of the skin. (5) Hectic fever, and a continuous decrease in the power of the body to resist cold. (6) At first a scanty excretion of dry, bilious, grass-green faeces, and afterwards diarrhoea of liquid saline matter. (7) Convulsions similar to those in death by hemorrhage. (8) Death by starvation seems to be in reality death by cold; since the temperature of the body is not nuich diminished mitil the fat is nearly consumed, when it rapidly falls, unless it be kept up by heat applied externally. (0) Young animals suc- cumbed far sooner than adults. (10) The results of insufficient food were in the end the same as those of total deprivation, the total amount of loss being almost the same, but the rate being less, so that a longer time was required to pro- duce it. Chossat did not find that nuicli inllucnce was exerted on the duration of life by permitting or withdrawing the supply of water; but there is no doubt that in man, and probably in nuimmals generally, death supervenes much earlier when liquids as well as solid food are withheld. Dur- ing the famine of 1847 in Ireland, the following were the most striking symptoms observed in llie starving: Pain in the stomacli, relieved by pres- sure; pallor and emaciation; bright and wild eyes; hot breatli; parched mouth, thick and scanty saliva; intolerable thirst; foetor from the skin, which becomes covered with a dark-brown secretion; tottering gait, w-eak and whining voice, the tears starting easily ; imbecility. The time during which life can be supported under entire abstinence from food and drink varies much. In one case, reported by Sloan, a healthy man, aged 65 years, survived 23 days' imprison- ment without food in a coal-mine, having impure water for the first ten days of this period. He died three days after rescue. The average healthy individual will survive a week or ten days of complete abstinence from food and water. Con- sult : Fernet, "Amaigrissement extreme et niort par inanition," in Bulletin et memoire, Sociiti medicale de I'hdpital tie Paris (1901); Leeson, "Death from Starvation," in Dublin Medical Press (1847); Davies, "Starvation," in Popular Science Monthly, vol. xxvi. (New York. 1884-85). STARWORT. See Ciiickweed. STARY-OSKOL, stii're oskftl'. A district town in the Government of Kursk, Russia, on the river Oskol, 92 miles east-southeast of Kursk. It has tanneries and tobacco factories. Popula- tion, in 1897, 16,662. STAS, stas, .Jean Servais (1813-91). A Bel- gian chemist. He was born in Louvain, studied under and later assisted Dumas, and was for many years professor of the Military Acad- emy in Brussels. He was one of the earliest investigators of the constitution of organic com- pounds, such as acetal. Subsequently he de- voted a number of years to the determination of the atomic weights of the elements, and it is l)rincipally for these classic researches that he is celebrated in the history of science. The im- juilse to these researches was given by the dis- cussion as to whether the atomic weights are or are not exact multiples of the atomic weight of hydrogen — a question connected with Front's hypothesis, according to which the several chem- ical elements are derived from hydrogen and are not essentially different substances. But the re- sults of Stas's work have been of much further- reaching importance, and its precision has hardly as yet been surpassed. His collected works ap- peared in three volumes (Brussels, 1894). Con- sult Spring, Xotice sur la vie et les trareaux de J. S. Stas (Brussels, 1893). STASSFURT, stiis'foort. A town in the Province of Saxony, Prussia, on the Bode River, 20 miles south of Magdeburg (Map: Prussia, D 3). There are iron mills, and the important royal salt works, which mine potash and rock salts. Extensive chemical works are also found here. Population, in 1900, 20,031. The town has been known since 806. STATANT (heraldic Fr., standing). In heraldry, a term applied to an animal standing still, with all the feet touching the ground. If