cient man in their room, or pay a certain fum, &c. SCUTARET, or SCUTARI, a castle and feraglio on the eaft fide of the Bofphorus, oppofite to Conftantinople, about a mile from it. SCUTARI, a city of european Turky, in the province of Albania, fituated in eaft longit. 20°, and north lat. 42° 30'. SCUTCHEON. See ESCUTCHEON. SCUTELLARIA, in botany, a genus of the didynamia-gymnofpermia clafs of plants, the corolla whereof confifis of a fingle ringent petal; the tube is very fhort, and reflected backwards; the faux is long and compreffed; the upper lip is concave and trifid, and the middle lacinula concave and emarginated; there is no pericarpium; the mouth of the calyx is originally open, but after the flower is fallen it becomes fhut, with an operculum; the feeds are roundish, and four in number. This genus comprehends the caffida of Tournefort. This plant is recommended as good in tertian agues. SCUTIFORME os, in anatomy, the chief bone of the knee, called alfo patella, mola, &c. See the article PATELLA, SCUTIFORMIS CARTILAGO, in anatomy, one of the cartilages of the larynx, the broadeft and biggeft of them all, called alfo thyroides. See the article LARYNX, This cartilage is of a quadrangular figure, and ftands in the anterior part, where the pomum Adami makes its prominence, whence it is fometimes called the anterior cartilage. It is gibbous withoutfide, and hollow within; fometimes double, chiefly in women, in whom it does not advance fo far forward as in men. SCUTTLES, in a fhip, fquare holes cut in the deck, big enough to let in the botdy of a man, ferving to let people down into any room below upon occafion, or from one deck to another. They are generally before the main-maft, before the knight in the forecastle; in the gunroom, to go down to the ftern sheets; in the round-house, to go down into the captain's cabin, when forced by the enemy in a fight aloft. There are also fome fmaller fcuttles, which have gratings over them: and all of them have covers, that people may not fall down through them in the night. Scuttle is alfo name given to those little windows and long holes which are cut out in cabins, to let in light, SCYTALA, in mechanics, a term used by fome writers, for a kind of radius, er spoke, standing out from the axis of a machine, as an handle or lever to turn it round and work it by. SCYTALA LACONICA, a tratagem or device of the Lacedemonians, for the fecret writing of letters to their correfpondents, fo that if they should chance to be intercepted, no body might be able to read them. To this end they had two wooden rollers or cylinders, perfectly alike and equal, one whereof was kept in the city, and another by the perfon to whom the letter was directed. For the letter, a fkin of a very thin parchment was wrapped round the roller, and thereon was the matter written; which done, it was taken off, and fent away to the party, who, upon putting it in the fame manner upon his roller, found the lines and words in the very fame difpofition as when they were firft written. SCYTHIA. The northern parts of Europe and Afia were antiently fo called, which afterwards obtained the name of Tartary. SEA, mare, is frequently used for that vaft tract of water encompaffing the whole earth; but is more properly a part or divifion of these waters, and is better defined a leffer affemblage of water, which lieth before and washeth the coafts of fome particular countries, from whence it is generally denominated, as the Irish sea, the Mediterranean fea, the Arabian sea, &c. What proportion the fuperficies of the fea bears to that of the land is not precisely known, though it is faid to be somewhat more than two thirds. As the waters of the earth must neceffarily rile to the furface thereof, as being fpecifically lighter than the earth, it was neceffary there fhould be large cavities therein for receptacles to contain them, otherwife they would have overspread all the fuperficies of the earth, and fo have rendered it utterly uxinhabitable for terreftrial animals; for the center of the earth being the common center of gravity, and the nature of fluids being fuch, that they equally yield to equal powers; and the power of attraction being every where equal at equal distances from the center, it follows, that the fuperficial parts of the water will every where conform themfelves to an equidistant fituation from the center, and confequently will form the furface of a fphere, fo far as they extend. Hence, that the fea feems higher than the earth earth or land, refults from the fallacy of vifion, whereby all objects, and the parts of land as well as fea, the farther they are off from us, the higher they appear; the reafon of all which is plain from optics for it is well known, that the denfer any medium is, through which we behold objects, the greater is the refraction; or the more their images appear above the horizontal level; alfo the greater quantity of the medium the rays pafs through, the more will they be bent from their first direction; on both thefe accounts the appearances of things remote, and on the fea, will be fomewhat above the horizon, and the more fo, as they are the more remote. See the articles GRAVITY, FLUID, EARTH, REFRACTION, &c. With regard to the depth or profundity of the fea, Varenius affirms, that it is in fome places unfathomable, and in other places very various, being in certain places 26, 3, at b. laz, 2, 4 english miles, in other places deeper, and much lefs in bays than in oceans. In general, the depths of the fea bear a great analogy to the height of mountains on the land, fo far as is hitherto difcovered. See the article MOUNTAIN. 1 M. Daffie has been at great pains to prove that the fea has a general motion, independent of winds and tides, and of more confequence in navigation than is generally fuppofed. He affirms, that this motion is from east to west inclining towards the north, when the fun has paffed the equinoctial northward, and that during the time the fun, is in the northern figns; but the contrary way after the fun has paffed the faid equinoctial fouthward: adding, that when this general motion is changed, the diurnal flux is changed also ; whence it happens that in feveral places the tides come in, during one part of the year, and go out during the other, as on the coats of Norway, in the Indies at Goa, Conchinchina, &c. where, while the fun is in the fummer figns, the fea runs to the fhore; and when in the winter figns, runs from it. On the most fouthern coafts of Tonquin and China, for the fix fummer months, the diurnal course runs from the north with the ocean; but the fun having repaffed the line toward the fouth, the courfe declines alfo fouthward. There are two principal reafons why the fea doth not increafe by means of rivers, &c. falling every where into it. The firft is, becaufe waters return from the fea by fubterranean cavities and aque ducts, through various parts of the earth. Secondly, because the quantity of va pours raised from the fea, and falling on the land, only cause a circulation, but no increase of water. It hath been found by calculation, that in a fummer's day there may be raised in vapours, from the Mediterranean fea 5280000000 tuns of water; and yet this fea receiveth not, from all its nine great rivers, above 1827000000 tuns per day, which is but a third part of what is exhaufted in vapours. The afcent of the fea-water, for the formation of springs, by a fubterranean circulation of its water to their fources, has been a great objection with many, against the system of their being formed of the fea; but Dr. Plot has observed, that there are many ways by which the water may afcend above its own level: 1. By the means of fubterranean heats. 2. By filtration. 3. By the unequal height of several seas. 4. By the distance of the center of magnitude from the center of gravity in the terraqueous globe: the fuperficies of the Pacific fea is faid to be farther from the center of gravity than the top of the highest hill on the adverse part of the globe. And 5. By the help of ftorms. The fea-water actually afcends above its own level, coming into wells, whose bottoms lie higher than the surface of the fea at high-water mark. With regard to the faltnefs of the feawater, it is very rationally judged to arise from great multitudes both of mines and mountains of falt, difperfed here and there in the depths of the fea. The falt being continually diluted and diffolved by the water, the fea becomes impregnated with its particles throughout; and for this reafon the faltnefs of the fea can never be diminished. Dr. Halley fuppofes that it is probable the greatest part of the fea-falt, and of all falt-lakes, as the Cafpian fea, the Dead-fea, the lake of Mexico, and the Titicaca in Peru, is derived from the water of the rivers which they receive; and fince this fort of lakes has no exit or discharge, but by the exhalation of vapours; and also fince these vapours are entirely fresh, or devoid of fuch particles, it is certain the faltnefs of the fea and fuch lakes muft, from time to time increafe, and therefore the faltness at this time is greater than at any time heretofore. He further adds, that if, by experiments made in different ages, we could could find the different quantity of falt, which the fame quantity of water (taken up in the fame place, and in all other the fame circumstances) would afford, it would be eafy from thence, by rules of proportion, to find the age of the world very nearly, or the time wherein it has been acquiring its present saltness. With regard to the use of this falt property of fea-water, it is observed that the faltnefs of the fea preferves its waters pure and fweet, which otherwife would corrupt and ftink like a filtby lake, and confequently that none of myriads of creatures that now live therein, could then have a being. From thence also the feawater becomes much heavier, and therefore ships of greater fize and quantity may be used thereon. Salt water alfo doth not freeze fo foon as fresh water, whence the feas are more free for navigation. We have lately had published a differtation, by Dr. Ruffel, concerning the medical uses of fea-water, in diseases of the glands, &c. wherein the author premises fome observations upon the nature of fea-water, confidered as impregnated with particles of all the bodies it paffes over, fuch as fubmarine plants, fish, falts, minerals, &c. and faturated with their feveral effluvia, to enrich it, and keep it from putrefaction; hence this fluid is fuppofed to contract a foapiness, and the whole collection being pervaded by the fulphureous fteams paffing through it, to constitute what we call fea-water, the confeffed diftinguishing characteristics of which are faltnefs, bitterness, nitrofity, and unctuofity: whence the author concludes, that it may be justly expected to contribute fignally to the improvement of phyfic. The cafes in which our author informs us we are to expect advantage from fea-water, are, 1. In all recent obftructions of the glands of the inteftines and mefentery. 2. All recent obftructions of the pulmonary glands, and thofe of the viscera, which frequently produce confumptions. 3. All recent glandular fwellings of the neck, or other parts. 4. Recent tumours of the joints, if they are not fuppurated, or become fcirrhous, or cancerous, and have not carious bones for their caufe. 5. Recent defluxions upon the glands of the eye-lids. 6. All defcedations of the fkin, from an eryfipelas, to a lepra. 7. Difeafes of the glands of the nofe, with their ufual companion a thickness of the lip. 8. ObAtractions of the kidneys, where there is no inflammation, and the ftone not large. 9. In recent obftructions of the liver this method will be proper, where it prevents conftipations of the belly, and affitts other medicines directed in icteric cafes, The fame remedy is faid to be of fignal fervice in the bronchocele; and is likewise recommended for the prevention of those bilious colics that fo frequently affect our mariners. To make fea-water fresh is a thing long and much wanted, for the advantage of navigation and commerce; a method for doing which has been long ago invented by Mr. Hauton, and the fecret published in the Philof. Tranfact. It is performed by precipitating the water with oil of tartar, and then diftilling it. But Mr. Appleby's process, which was referred by the lords of the admiralty to the college of physicians, and communicated to the royal fociety, with fome experiments therewith, on Feb. 8, 1753, appears to be more fuccessful, and is performed thus into twenty gallons of fea-water put fix ounces of a fixed alkali, prepared with quick-lime as ftrong as lapis infernalis, and fix ounces of bones, calcined to a whiteness, and finely powdered; with a flow fire, draw off, in a common ftill, fifteen gallons. Mr. Appleby conceives that the alkali here employed is the best adapted to prevent the bituminous matter in fea-water from rifing by heat in diftillation. In the year 1755, a method of procuring any quantity of fresh water at fea was published by Dr. Butler; together with a method alfo of preferving fresh water entirely pure, fweet, and wholesome, during the longeft voyage, and in the warmeft climates. The method more expressly recommended by the doctor for making fea-water fresh, is to put a meafured wine quart of the ftrongest foap leys to fifteen gallons of fea-water, which being diftilled, he affures us, will generally yield twelve gallons of freth water. The above quantity of foap leys, we are told, will bear a repetition of the fame quantity of water. four or five times. This method of Dr. Butler was tried, by order of the lords of the admiralty, at the fame time with Mr. Appleby's: but the latter, being found to be perform. ed with a leis quantity of fuel, was preferred. In order to keep fresh water fweet, Dr. Butler directs to take of fine, clear, white pearl afhes, a quarter of a pound averdupois. dupois, and put into one hundred gallons of fresh water; obferving this proportion to a greater or lefs quantity, and ftop up your calk as ufual, till you have occafion to broach it. For the ebbing and flowing of the sea, fee the article TIDES. For the fea-army, fea-aftrolabe, fea bifket, fea-chart, fea-compafs, &c. fee the articles ARMY, ASTROLABE, BISKET, CHART, &c. SEA-MEN, fuch as are referved to ferve the king, or other perfons, at fea, who may not depart without licenfe, &c. Seamen fighting, quarreling, or making any difturbance, may be punished by the commiffioners of the navy, with fine and imprisonment. Registered fea men are exempted from ferving in any parish office, &c. and are allowed bounty money befides their pay. By the law of merchants, the fea-men of a veffel are accountable to the master or commander, and the mafter to the owners, and the owners to the merchants, for damage fuftained either by negligence or otherwife. Where a feaman is hired for a voyage, and he deferts it before it is ended, he shall lose his wages; and in cafe a fhip be loft by a tempeft, or in a storm, the fea-men fofe their wages, as well as the owners their freight. See NAVAL AFFAIRS. SEAFORD, a port town of Suffex, fituated on the english channel, feven miles fouth of Lewes. It fends two members to parliament. SEAL, figillum, a puncheor, or piece of metal, or other matter, ufually either round or oval, whereon are engraven the arms, device, &c. of fome prince, fate, community, magiftrate or private person, often with a legend or fubfcription, the impreffion whereof in wax, ferves to make acts, inftruments, &c. authentic. Before the time of William the conqueror, the makers of all deeds only fubfcribed their names, adding the fign of the cross, and a great number of witneffes; but that monarch and the nobility used feals with their arms on them, which example was afterwards followed by others. The colour of the wax wherewith this king's grants were fealed was ufually green, to fignify that the act continued fresh for ever, and of force. A feal is abfolutely neceifary in respect of deeds, becaufe the fealing of them makes perfons parties thereto, and without being fealed, they are void in law, It is held, that if a feal be broken off, it will render the deed void, and that where feveral are bound in a bond, the pulling off the seal of one vacates it as to all the reft. The king's great feal is that whereby all patents, commiffions, warrants, &c.coming from the king are fealed. The keeping hereof is in the hands of the lord high chancellor, who is hence denominated lord keeper. Indeed there is fome difference between the lord chancellor and lord keeper, not in office, but in the manner of creation, the latter being made by the delivery of the great feal to him by the king, but the former having a patent. The king's privy feal is a feal that is ufually first fet to grants that are to pafs the great feal. See KEEPER. SEAL is also used for the wax or lead, and the impreffion thereon, affixed to the thing fealed. SEALER, an officer in chancery appointed by the lord chancellor or keeper of the great feal, to feal the writs and inftruments there made in his prefence. SEALING, in architecture, the fixing a piece of wood or iron in a wall with plafter, mortar, cement, lead, and other folid binding. For staples, hinges and joints, plafter is very proper. SEALING-WAX. See the article WAX. SEAM or SEME of corn, is a measure of eight bufhels. SEAM of glass, the quantity of 120 pound, or 24 ftones, each five pounds weight. The feam of wood is an horfe load. SEAMS of a ship, are places where her planks meet and join together. There is also a kind of peculiar feam in the fowing of fails, which they call monk fear; the other feam of a fail is the round feam, fo called from its being round like the common feams. SEARCE. See the article SIEVE. SEARCHER. See the article ALNAGER. Searcher is also an officer of the customs, whofe business is to fearch and examine all fhips outward bound, to fee whether they have any prohibited or unaccustomed goods on board. SEAR-CLOTH, or CERE-CLOTH, in furgery, a form of external remedy fomewhat harder than an unguent, yet fofter than an emplafter, though it is frequently ufed both for the one and the other. The fear-cloth is always fuppofed to have wax in its compofition, which diftinguithes and even denominates it. In effect, when when a liniment or unguent has wax enough in it, it does not differ from a fear-cloth. Sear-cloths are a kind of substitutes to friction, and are fometimes ufed for other purposes; the best are compounded of refolvent drugs, as faffron, myrrh, and aloes, incorporated with wax and gums, as galbanum, gum ammoniac, and fagapenum, the whole tempered with wine. SEASE. See the article SEIZE. SEASIN, or SEASING, in a fhip, the name of a rope by which the boat rides by the hip's fide when in harbour, &c. SEASONS, in colmography, certain portions or quarters of the year, diftinguished by the figns which the earth then enters, or by the meridian altitudes of the fun, confequent on which are different temperatures of the air, different works in tillage, &c. The year is divided into four feafons, fpring, fummer, autumn, and winter. The beginnings and endings of each whereof, fee under its proper article, SPRING, &c. How the course of the earth's revolution about the fun conftitutes all the variety of the seasons, may be feen under the article EARTH. SEASONING of timber. See TIMBER. SEAT, in aftronomy. See SCHEAT. SEAT, in the manege, the posture or fituation of the horseman upon the faddle. SEBASTIAN ST. a port-town of Spain, in the province of Biscay, and territory of Guipufcoa, fituated in weft long. 1° 50′, north lat. 43° 35'. SEBESTEN, or CORDIA, in botany. See the article CORDIA. SEBUM, SUET, in anatomy. See SUET. SECALE, or SECALINA, RYE, in botany, a genus of the triandria digynia clafs of plants, the corolla whereof confifts of two valves; the exterior valve is rigid, ventricofe, acuminated and compreffed, its lower edge is ciliated, and it terminates in a long arifta: the interior valve is lanceolated and plane; the nectaria are two, ovated and erect; the corolla ferves the office of a pericarpium, inclosing the feed, and, at a proper time, opening and dropping it out; the feed is fingle, oblong, and almoft cylindric. See RYE. SECANT, in geometry, is a line that cuts another, or divides it into two parts. See the article LINE. Thus the line A M (plate CCXLIII. 1 It is demonstrated by geometers, 1. That if feveral fecants MA, MN, ME, &c. be drawn from the fame point M, that paffing through the center MA is the greatest, and the rest are all fo much the lefs as they are more remote from the center. On the contrary, the portions thereof without the circle MD, MO, M B, are so much the greater as they are farther from the center. 2. That if two fecants, MA and ME be drawn from the fame point M, the fecant MA will be to ME, as MD to MB. See the ar ticle TANGENT. In trigonometry, the fecant denotes a right line drawn from the center of a circle, which cutting the circumference, proceeds till it meets with a tangent to the fame circle: thus the line F C (ibid. n° 2) drawn from the center C till it meet the tangent E F, is called a fecant ; and particularly the fecant of the arch AE to which EF is a tangent. The fecant of the arch AH, which is the com plement of the former arch to a quadrant, is called the co-fecant, or fecant of the complement. See the articles CIRCLE, COMPLEMENT, &c. For the properties and use of the fecant, fee the articles TRIGONOMETRY, NAVIGATION, SURVEYING, &c. For the line of fecants on the sector, fee the article SECTOR. SECOMIÆ, in natural hiftory, the name of a genus of foffits, of the clafs of the feptariæ, the characters of which are ; that they are bodies of a dufky hue, divided by fepts, or partitions of a fpar. ry matter, into feveral more or less regular portions, of a moderately firm texture, not giving fire with fteel, but fermenting with acid menftrua, and eafily calcining. See SEPTARIÆ. The feptariæ of this genus are, of all others, the most common, and are what have been known by the little expressive, or mistaken names of the waxen vein, or ludus helmontii. We have many fpecies of these bodies common among us. Of the whitish or brownish kinds we have thirteen; of the yellowish five, and of the ferrugineous ones four. SECOND, in geometry, chronology, &c. the fixtieth part of a prime or minute, whether of a degree, or of an hour: it is denoted by two fmall accents, thus ("). See DEGREE, HOUR, MINUTE, &C. SECOND, in mufic, one of the mufical intervals; being only the difference be16 U tween |