woods and moist places. This has a short taproot, the end of which appears as if it was bitten or cut off, whence the plant has its name. The leaves are open and spear-shaped, and smooth; the stalks are single, about two feet high, garnished with two leaves at each joint; they generally send out two short foot-stalks from their upper joint, standing opposite, which are terminated by purple flowers. Both these have been recommended as aperient, sudorific, and expectorant; but the present practice has no dependence on them. SCA'BROUS, adj. Fr. scabreux; Lat. scaber. Rough; rugged; poi ed on the surface; harsh. Lucretius is scabrous and rouga in these; he seeks them, as some do Chaucerisins, which were better expunged. Ben Jonson. Urine, black and bloody, is occasioned by something sharp or scabrous wounding the small bloodvessels; the stone is smooth and well bedded, this may not happen. Arbuthnot. SCABWORT. See SCABIOSA. SC EVOLA, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order and pentandria class of plants: COR. monopetalous; the tube slit longitudinally; the border quinquefid and lateral. The fruit is a plum inferior and monospermous; the nucleus bilocular. Species three, natives of India. SCAFFOLD, n. s. SCAFFOLDAGE, SCAFFOLDING. temporary stage or gallery particularly the stage erected for the execution of malefactors: the other two substantives are synonymous. French eschafaut ; of Lat. scabellum. A Sickness, contributing no less than old age to the shaking down this scaffolding of the body, may dis cover the inward structure. Pope. scaffold to tyranny, whereof he had no further use. Swift. SCAGLIOLA, in architecture, a kind of Italian composition in imitation of marble, variously colored according to the species the artist intends to represent. It is laid on brick in the manner of stucco, and worked off with iron tools, or formed by moulds into friezes, architectural borders, &c. This manufacture was intro duced into this country by Mr. Coade, and is now carried on with great success. SCALA (Bartolomeo), an eminent Italian writer, who flourished when literature was reviv— ing in Europe. He was born about 1424, and was the only son of a miller; but, going early to Florence, Cosmo de Medicis gave him education. He studied the law; became LL.D., and fre quented the bar. On Cosmo's death, in 1464, Peter de Medicis employed him in the service of the republic, in the most important negociations. In 1471 he was made a citizen of Florence; in 1472 he was ennobled and made chancellor. In 1484 he was sent on an embassy to pope Innocent VIII., whom he pleased so well that the pope made him a Roman knight and senator. He published some of his orations, among which were the following:-1. Pro Imperatoriis militaribus signis dandis Constantio Sfortia imperatori; 1481; 2. Apologia contra vituperatores Florentiæ; 1496, folio; 3. De Historia Florentina; Libri iv. 4. Vita di Vitaliani Borromeo; Rome, 1677, 4to. He died in Florence in 1497. SCALA NOVA, the old Neapolis, a well built sea-port town of Asia Minor, three leagues from the site of the ancient Ephesus. The fortifications are about three-quarters of a mile in circumference. To the north is a suburb, in which alone the Christians are permitted to dwell. The population is reckoned by Tournefort, at 1000 Turkish families, 600 Greek, ten Jew, and sixty Armenian. The town carries on a considerable trade in grain, coffee, and cloth, from Egypt, Smyrna, and Salonica. The neighbourhood yields a considerable quantity of wine. Forty miles south of Smyrna. SCALADE', n. s. I Fr. scalade; Span. scaSCALA DO. lada, from Latin scala, a ladder. A storm given to a place by raising ladders against the walls. What can be more strange than that we should within two months have won one town of importance by scalado, battered and assaulted another, and overthrown great forces in the field? Bacon. Thou raisedst thy voice to record the stratagems, the arduous exploits, and the nocturnal scalade of needy heroes, the terror of your peaceful citizens. Arbuthnot's History of John Bull. SCALADO, or SCALADE, in the art of war, is an assault made on the wall or rampart of a city, or other fortified place, by means of ladders, without carrying on works in form, to secure the men. SCA'LARY, adj. From Lat. scala. ceeding by steps like those of a ladder. Pro He made at nearer distances certain elevated Sylla added three hundred commons to the senate; places and scalary ascents, that they might better then abolished the office of tribune, as being only a ascend or mount their horses. Browne. him ; For which operation there's nothing more proper Than the liquor he deals in, his own melted copper. Swift. SCALD CREAM, sometimes also called clouted cream, a method of preparing cream for butter. Mr. Feltham gives the following account of it :The purpose of making scald cream is for butter superior to any which can be procured from the usual raw cream, being preferable for flavor and keeping. As leaden cisterns would not answer for scalding cream, the dairies mostly adopt brass pans, which hold from three to five gallons of the milk; and that which is put into those pans one morning stands till the next, when, without disturbing it, it is set over (on a trivet) a steady brisk wood fire, devoid of smoke, where it is to remain from seven to fifteen minutes, according to the size of the pan, or the quantity in it: the precise time for removing it from the fire must be particularly attended to, which is, when the surface begins to wrinkle or to gather in a little, showing signs of boiling; it is then instantly to be taken off, and placed in the dairy until the next morning, when the fine cream is thrown up, and may be taken for the table, or for butter, into which it is now soon converted by stirring it with the hand. Some know when to remove it from the fire by sounding the pan with the finger, it being then less sonorous; but this is only acquired by experience. Dr. Hales observes that this method of preparing milk will take off the taste it sometimes acquires from the cows' feeding on turnips, cabbages, &c. SCALDS, in the history of literature, a name given by the ancient inhabitants of the northern countries to their poets; in whose writings their history is recorded. See BARDS. SCALE, n. s. & v. a. Sax. rcale; Belg. schael; Island. skal; Goth. skal. A balance; the dish of a balance: hence the sign Libra: to measure; compare. If thou tak'st more Or less than a just pound, if the scale turn Thou diest. Shakspeare. Merchant of Venice. Here's an equivocator, that could swear, in both the scales, against either scale. You have found, Scaling his present bearing with his past, That he's your fixed enemy. Shakspeare. Id. Coriolanus. The world's scales are even; when the main In one place gets, another quits again. Cleveland. Juno pours out the urn, and Vulcan claims The scales, as the just product of his flames. Creech. Milton's Paradise Lost. The scales are turned, her kindness weighs no more If we consider the dignity of an intelligent being, and put that in the scales against brute inanimate matter, we may affirm, without overvaluing human nature, that the soul of one virtuous and religious man is of greater worth and excellency than the sun and his planets. Bentley's Sermons. Collect at evening what the day brought forth, Compress the sum into its solid worth, The scales are false, or algebra a lie. And, if it weigh the importance of a fly, Cowper. SCALE, n.s., v.a. & v. n. Fr. escaille; Lat. Smina of a fish's coat; any thing exfoliated or disquamated: to strip of scales; to pare off a surface: the adjectives signify squamous; having scales: to peel off in thin particles. Raphael was sent to scale away the whiteness of Tobit's eyes. Tob. iii. 17. A cistern for scaled snakes. Half my Egypt was submerged, and made Shakspeare. Antony and Cleopatra. Those that cast their shell are the lobster and crab the old skins are found, but the old shells never; so as it is like they scale off, and crumble away by degrees. He puts him on a coat of mail, Which was made of a fish's scale. Bucon. Drayton. Take jet and the scales of iron, and with a wet feather, when the smith hath taken an heat, take up the scales that fly from the iron, and those scales you should grind upon your painter's stone. Peacham. The river horse and scaly crocodile. Milton. Standing aloof, with lead they bruise the scales, And tear the flesh of the incensed whales. Waller. His awful summons they so soon obey; So hear the scaly herd when Proteus blows, And so to pasture follow through the sea. Drd n. If all the mountains were scaled, and the earth made even, the waters would not overflow its smooth surface. Burnet. Woodward. A scaly fish with a forked tail. When a scale of bone is taken out of a wound, burning retards the separation. Sharp's Surgery. SCALE, n. s. & v. a. Lat. scala. A ladder; means of ascent; the act of storming by ladders; regular gradation; series of musical or other degrees, or notes; any thing marked at equal distances to climb by ladders; to mount. Often have I scaled the craggy oak, All to dislodge the raven of her nest: How have I wearied, with many a stroke, The stately walnut-tree, the while the rest Under the tree fell all for nuts at strife! Spenser. They assailed the breach, and others with their scaling ladders scaled the walls. Knolles's History of the Turks. They take the flower o' the Nile By certain scale i' the pyramid: they know By the height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth Or foizon follow. Shakspeare. Antony and Cleopatra. The thought, and heart enlarges; hath his seat Bentley's Sermons. All the integral parts of nature have a beautiful analogy to one author, and to their mighty original, whose images are more or less expressive, according to their several gradations in the scale of beings. Cheyne's Philosophical Principles. Far as creation's ample range extends, The scale of sensual mental powers ascends. Pope. SCALE, a mathematical instrument consisting of several lines drawn on wood, brass, silver, &c., and variously divided according to the purposes it is intended to serve; whence it acquires various denominations, as the plain scale, diagonal scale, plotting scale, &c. SCALE, in architecture and geography, a line divided into equal parts, placed at the bottom of a map or draught, to serve as a common measure to all the parts of the building, or all the distances and places of the map. SCALE, in music, sometimes denominated a gamut, a diagram, a series, an order, a diapason. It consists of the regular gradations of sound, by which a composer or performer whether in rising or descending may pass from any given tune to another. These gradations are seven. When this order is repeated, the first note of the second is consentaneous with the lowest note of cond of the latter; and so through the whole the first; the second of the former with the seoctave. The second order, therefore, is justly esteemed only a repetition of the first. this reason the scale among the moderns is sometimes limited to an octave; at other times extended to the compass of any particular voice or instrument. It likewise frequently includes all the practical gradations of musical sound, or the whole number of octaves employed in composition or execution, arranged in their natural order. See Music. For SCALIGER (Julius Cæsar), a learned critic, born at the castle of Ripa, in the Veronese, in 1484; and said by himself to have been descended from the ancient princes of Verona. He learned the Latin tongue in his own country; and in his twelfth year was presented to the emperor Maximilian, who made him one of his pages. He served that emperor seventeen years, and gave signal proofs of his valor and conduct in several expeditions. He was present at the battle of Ravenna in April 1512, in which he lost his father Benedict Scaliger, and his brother Titus; on which his mother died with grief: when, being reduced to necessitous circumstances, he entered into the order of the Franciscans, and applied himself to study at Bologna; but soon after took arms again, and served in Piedmont. At which time a physician persuaded him to study physic, which he did at his leisure hours, and also learned Greek; and at last the gout determined him, at forty years of age, to abandon a military life. He soon after settled at Agen, where he was naturalised in 1528, married, and applied himself seriously to his studies. He learned first the French tongue; and then made himself master of the Gascon, Italian, Spanish, German, Hungarian, and Sclavonian. Meanwhile he supported his family by the practice of physic. He did not publish any of his works till he was forty-seven years of age; when he soon gained a name in the republic of letters. He had a graceful person, and a strong memory. He died of a retention of urine in 1558. He wrote in Latin, 1. A Treatise on the Art of Poetry. 2. Exercitations against Cardan: which works are much esteemed. 3. Commentaries on Aristotle's History of Animals, and on Theophrastus on Plants. 4. Some Treatises on Physic. 5. Letters, Orations, Poems, and other works in Latin. SCALIGER (Joseph Justus), one of the most learned critics and writers of his time; the son of the above, was born at Agen, in France, in 1540. He studied in the college of Bourdeaux, after which his father employed him in transcribing his poems; by which he obtained such a taste for poetry that before he was seventeen years old he wrote a tragedy upon the subject of Oedipus. He went to Paris in 1559, with a design to apply himself to the Greek language. For this purpose he for two months attended the lectures of Turnebus; and afterwards shut him self up, and by constant application for two years gained a perfect knowledge of that language; after which he applied to the Hebrew, which he learned by himself with great facility. He made no less progress in the sciences; and his writings procured him the reputation of one of the greatest men of the age. He embraced the reformed religion at twenty-two years of age. In 1563 he attached himself to Lewis Casteignier de la Roch Pazay, whom he attended in several journeys; and in 1593 was offered the place of honorary professor of the university of Leyden, which he accepted. He died of a dropsy in that city in 1609. He was a man of great temperance; and was never married. He published many works, the principal of which are, 1. Notes on Seneca's Tragedies, on Varro, Ausonius, Pompeius Festus, &c. 2. Latin Poems. 3. A Treatise de Emendatione Temporum. 4. Eusebius's Chronicle with Notes. 5. Canones Isagogici; and many other works. The collections entitled Scaligeriana were collected from his conversations by one of his friends; and, being ranged into alphabetical order, were published by Isaac Vossius. SCALLOP, n. s. Fr. escalop. A fish with a hollow pectinated shell. So the emperour Caligula, To charge whole regiments of scallops. Hudibras. The sand is in Scilly glistering, which may be occasioned from freestone mingled with white scallop shells. Mortimer. In SCALLOP, in ichthyology. See PECTEN. the Highlands of Scotland, the great scallop shell is made use of for the skimming of milk. In old times it had a more honorable place; being admitted into the halls of heroes, and was the cup of their festivity when the tribe assembled in the hall of their chieftain. SCALMARTIN Rocks, rocks of Ireland, on the coast of Down county, Ulster, in the harbour of Donaghadee. Though they are so smooth that vessels seldom suffer on them, yet in high tides and storms they are dangerous. SCALP, n. s. & v. a. Belg. schelpe, a shell; Ital. scalpo. The skull or cranium; to take off the scalp. High brandishing his bright dew-burning blade, Upon his crested scalp so sore did smite, That to the scull a yawning wound it made. Faerie Queene. White beards have armed their thin and hairless scalps, Against thy majesty. Shakspeare. Richard II. The hairy scalps Are whirled aloof, while numerous trunks bestrow The ensanguined field. Phillips. If the fracture be not complicated with a wound of the scalp, or the wound is too small to admit of the operation, the fracture must be laid bare by taking away a large piece of the scalp. Sharp's Surgery. We seldom inquire for a fracture of the skull by scalping, but that the scalp itself is contused. Sharp. SCALPA, one of the Western Islands of Scotland, lying in the sound between the Isle of VOL. XIX Sky and Pomona, about five miles long and from two to three broad. It is barren and rocky. In the highest part of it, is a rock of petrified moss, in which are a variety of shells; and great quantities of shells are found several feet under ground. It lies one mile east of Sky. SCALPA FLOW, a large expanse of water among the Orkney Islands, resembling a small sea, about fifty miles in circumference; surrounded by twelve islands, through which are several outlets to the Pentland Frith, Atlantic and German Oceans. During war it is a great thoroughfare for vessels coming north; and abounds with safe harbours and road-steads for vessels of the largest size. The chief entrance from the west is through Hoy-mouth, and from the east through Holme Sound. The tide at its entrance into Scalpa Flow is remarkably rapid, but soon subsides. A SCALPEL is a kind of knife used in anatomical dissections and operations in surgery. SCALPING, in military history, a barbarous custom practised by the American Indians, of taking off the tops of the scalps of their enemies' skulls with their hair on. They preserve thein as trophies of their victories, and are rewarded by their chiefs according to the number of scalps they bring in. SCAMANDER, or SCAMANDROS, a celebrated river of Troas, rising at the east end of Mount Ida, and running into the sea below Sigæum. Homer says it was called Xanthus by the gods. The goddesses Juno, Minerva, and Venus, are fabled to have bathed in it, previous to their appearing before Paris, in the contest for the golden apple. The Simois runs into it. It was a custom among the Phrygian brides to bathe themselves before marriage in this river. But this superstitious ceremony was abrogated, in consequence of Cimon an Athenian's having assumed irrhoe, a noble virgin, at that time betrothed. the disguise of a river god, and deflowering Ca"The origin of this river,' says Dr. Clarke, 'is not like the source of ordinary streams, obscure and uncertain; of doubtful locality and indetermivarious petty subdivisions in swampy places, or nate character; ascertained with difficulty, among ferent parts of the same mountain, and equally amidst insignificant rivulets, falling from diftributary; it bursts at once from the dark womb of its parent, in all the greatness of the divine origin assigned to it by Homer. Our ascert, as we drew near to the source of the river, became steep and stony. Lofty summits towered above us, in the greatest style of Alpine grandeur; the torrent, in its rugged bed below, all the while foaming upon our left. Presently we entered one of the sublimest natural amphitheatres the eye ever beheld; and here the guides desired us other sound. Huge craggy rocks rose perpento alight. The noise of waters silenced every dicularly to an immense height; whose sides and fissures to the very clouds, concealing their tops, were covered with pines, growing in every possible direction, among a variety of evergreen shrubs, wild sage, hanging ivy, moss, and creeping herbage. Enormous plane-trees waved their vast branches above the torrent. As we approached its deep gulf, we beheld several cas2 A cades all of foam, pouring impetuously from liquorice, and then poured off from the fæces; chasms in the naked face of a perpendicular the college of Wirtemberg assures us that by rock. It is said the same magnificent cataract this treatment it becomes mildly purgative, withcontinues during all seasons of the year, wholly out any inconveniences; and that it also proves unaffected by the casualties of rain or melting inoffensive to the palate. The common dose is snow.' from three to ten grains. According to the analysis of Vogel, Scammony consists of SCAMANDER, in fabulous history, the son of Corybas and Demodice, who brought a colony from Crete into Phrygia, and settled at the foot of Mount Ida, where he established the festivals of Cybele. Being afterwards drowned in the Xanthus, the river was named after him. He was succeeded by his son Teucer: Diod. 4. SCAM'BLE, v. n. Ital. scambilare, from Lat. scambus. To be turbulent or rapacious; to Some scambling shifts may be made without them. More. My wood was cut in patches, and other parts of it scambled, and cut before it was at its growth. Mortimer. SCAMMO'NIATE, adj. From scammony. Made with scammony, a resinous juice. It may be excited by a local scammoniate, or other acrimonious medicines. Wiseman's Surgery. SCAMMONY, a resinous gum, brought into this country from Aleppo, in light spongy masses, easily friable, of a shining ash-color verging to black; when powdered of a light gray or whitish color: an inferior sort is brought from Smyrna, in more compact ponderous pieces, of a darker color, and full of sand and other impurities. This juice is chiefly of the resinous kind; proof spirit totally dissolves it, the impurities only being left. It has a faint unpleasant smell, and a bitterish, somewhat acrimonious taste. Scammony is an efficacious and strong purgative. Some have condemned it as unsafe, and laid sundry ill qualities to its charge; the principal of which is, that its operation is uncertain, a full dose proving sometimes ineffectual, whilst at others a much smaller one occasions dangerous hypercatharses. This difference is owing to the different circumstances of the patient, and not to any ill quality or irregularity of operation of the medicine: where the intestines are lined with an excessive load of mucus, the scammony passes without exerting itself upon them; where the natural mucus is deficient, a small dose of this or any other resinous cathartic irritates and inflames. Many have endeavoured to abate the force of this drug, and correct its imaginary virulence, by exposing it to the fume of sulphur, dissolving it in acid juices, &c.; but this can only destroy a part of the medicine, without altering the rest. Scammony in substance, judiciously managed, needs no corrector: if triturated with sugar or almonds, it becomes sufficiently safe and mild. It may likewise be dissolved by trituration in a strong decoction of SCAMOZZI (Vincent), a celebrated Italian architect and writer, born at Vicenza in 1552. He travelled through most parts of Europe, and He wrote a celebrated work, entitled Idea della was much employed in the chief cities of Italy. Architectura Universale, 2 vols. folio, Venice, 1615. He died at Venice in 1616, aged sixtyfour. SCAM'PER, v. n. Goth. skampa; Ital. scampare. To fly with speed or trepidation. A fox seized upon the fawn, and fairly scampered away with him. L'Estrange. Be quick, nay, very quick, or he'll approach, And, as you're scampering, stop you in your coach. King. You will suddenly take a resolution, in your cabinet of Highlanders, to scamper off with your new Addison. crown. SCAN, v. a. Fr. scandre; Lat. scando. To examine a verse by counting the feet: examine nicely or formally. So he goes to heaven, The rest the great architect Milton's Paradise Lost. They scan their verses upon their fingers. Walsh. Sir Roger exposing his palm, they crumbled it into all shapes, and diligently scanned every wrinkle that could be made in it. Addison. Every man has guilt, which he desires should not be rigorously scanned; and therefore, by the rule of charity and justice, ought not to do that which he should not suffer. Government of the Tongue. The various turns of life, and fickle state of man. One moment and one thought might let him scan Prior. |