Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/842

* SWASTIKA. 738 SWEATING SICKNESS. Bibliography. The literature directly or in- directly relating to the swastika is very large (nioretlian 100 works are mentioned by Wilson), but most of it is useless; being composed by theorists rather than by careful scholars. Be- sides the article by R. "C. Temple (referred to above), which appeared in the first number of the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bom- bay, and d'Alviella's great work, La migration (les symboles (Paris. 1891), there is an exhaus- tive treatise in the Report of the United States National Museum (Washington, 1894), by Thomas Wilson, The Sicastika, the Earliest Known Syynliol, and Its Migrations, which, be- sides giving an account of the various theories of the symbol, has a complete bibliography of the subject. SWATOW, swji'tou' (a local corruption of Chinese Skaii-t'ow, fish-trap head). A treaty port in the Province of Kwang-tung. Southeast- ern China, situated in latitude 23° 21' N., longi- tude 110° 39' E., on the left bank and near the mouth of the river Han (Map: China, E 7). It is dependent on the departmental city of Ch'ao- cliow fu, 35 miles farther up the river, where the consuls arc supposed to reside. It was opened to foreign residence and trade by the Treaty of Tien- tsin (18.58), and the British and United States consuls were appointed in 1860. The foreign community is small and isolated, partly in the vicinity of the native town and partly on the hilly ground on the opposite side of the river. The natives are noted for their turbulence and their hostility to foreigners. Sugar-making is the chief industry of the region served by Swa- tow. Sugar is the heaviest export, and bean-cake from Niu-chwang for use as manure in the sugar fields is one of the heaviest imports of native products. There are several large sugar refiner- ies here, and a steam flour mill. Other products are tea, grasscloth, indigo, vegetable oils, paper, tobacco, joss-sticks, joss-paper, etc. The popula- tion in 1901 was 38,000. SWATS, swiits. A people of the Indo-Afghan frontier belonging by race and language to the Aryan stock. Their country, called Swat, trav- ersed by the river of the same name, an affluent of the Kabul, is included in the recently consti- tuted Northwest Frontier Province of India. For- merly Buddhists, they Avere converted to Mo- hammedanism in the eleventh century. The lower Swat country was occupied by the Yusuf- zais in the middle of the fifteenth century, and at the end of the sixteenth the Swats were nearly exterminated. SWAZILAND, swa'ze-land. A small Kaflir country in South Africa under British rule, bounded by Portuguese East Africa (Lourenco Marques)," Natal (Tongaland). and the Trans- vaal Colony (Map: Transvaal Colony, H .5). Area, about 8500 square miles. The region is mountainous. The I.ebnmbo chain lies on the east, the Drakensberg on the west. The general elevation is given as about 5000 feet. Swaziland is well watered, and is a fine grazing country. It is considered also well adapted for farming. There is much rich soil and the climate is health- ful. The forests are large and valuable, possess- ing rare varieties of woods. Its gold deposits are now being mined. Copper, coal, and tin are said to exist. The British resident commissioner ha3 his seat at Bremersdorp. The population is about 70,000, the Europeans numbering 1600. Swaziland became an independent State in 1843, its people having thrown off the yoke of the Zulus. In 1894, by convention between the Boers and British, the region came under the rule of the South African Republic (Transvaal), with whose downfall the sovereignty passed to Great Britain. SWEARING, PROFANE. See Blasphemy. SWEAT (AS. saat, OHG. swciz, Ger. Schweiss, sweat; connected with Lat. sudor, Gk. ISptis, hidros, Lith. sirAdrs, Skt. sveda, sweat). The fluid that is excreted through the pores of the skin; perspiration. The nature, composition, and uses of this fluid in the normal state have been noticed in the article on Skin (q.v.). The sweat is diminished in amouni. in many febrile dis<'ases, especially if the temperature is high and prolonged. Anidrosis, as this condition is called, accompanies diseases in Avhich there is a profuse discharge of fluid from the kidneys, as in diabetes, or from the bowels or stomach. In anasarca or general oedema and myxcedema sweat is diminished from stretching of the skin. Cer- tain drugs, as belladonna and strychnine, marked- ly diminish the amount of sweat; others, notably pilocarpine, increase it. Profuse sweating {hy- peridrosis) occurs in acute rhemnatism. Asiatic cholera, and certain adynamic fevers, the sweat- ing stage of malaria, the advanced stages of pul- monary phthisis, and septicaemia. Certain ail- ments are characterized by localized sweats; for example, the hands and feet in conditions of gen- eral debility; the head in rickets; and unilateral or one-sided sAveating of the head or face or body in some nervous diseases, or from pressure on the sympathetic nerves by thoracic aneurism. The composition and color of the sweat may in rare instances undergo remarkable alterations. When through disease the action of the kidneys has be- come impaired the sweat has sometimes a urinous odor and deposits white scales or urinary solids upon the skin. This is known as nridrosis. Broniidrosis is an afl'ection of the sweat glands characterized by oft'eusive-smelling perspiration. SWEATING SICKNESS. An extremely fatal e]iideniic disease which prevailed in Europe, and especially England, during the fifteenth, six- teenth, and early part of the seventeenth cen- turies. From the fact that the English people both at home and abroad were chiefly attacked, the malady was known as the 'English sweat' or 'English ephemera.' It first appeared in August, 1485, in the army of Henry VII. shortly after his arrival in Wales from France to fight the bat- tle of Bosworth, and in a few weeks it had spread to London. It was a violent inflammatory fever, attacking as a rule robust, vigorous men, and characterized by a short chill, painful oppression over the epigastrium, headache, stupor,, and a profuse fetid sweat. The disease took its course in about twenty-four hours. The patient suf- fered profound prostration and intense internal fever, but refrigerants seemed only to do harm. This epidemic lasted about a month, but during this short period many thousands died. The dis- ease returned to England in 1506, 1517, 1528, and 1551. The epidemic of 1528 was particularly severe and was long referred to as 'the great mortality.' It raged over Europe — Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Po- land, Lithuania, and Livonia were all attacked.