a

thie nece

a

Ο
Smollet. besides, there was a certain dignity in his air and man- The admiral immediately commenced a fresh action Smollet.

ner which could not but inspire respect wherever he ap- against the Doctor, who was found guilty, fined 100l.
ptared. Perhaps he was too soon discouraged; in all and condemned to three montlıs imprisonment in the

;
probability, had he persevered, a man of his great learn- King's Bench. It is there be is said to have written
ing, profound sagacity, and intense application, besides the Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves, in which he
being endued with every other external as well as inter- has described some remarkable characters, then his fel-
nal accomplishment, must have at last succeeded, and, low-prisoners.
had he attained to common old age, been at the head of When Lord Bute was called to the chief administra-
his profession.

tion of aflairs, he was prevailed upon to write in defence
Abandoning physic altogether as a profession, le fix- of that nobleman's measures; which he did in a weekly
ed his residence at Chelsea, and turned his thoughts en- paper called the Briton. This gave rise to the famous
tirely to writing. Yet, as an author, he was not near North Briton ; wherein, according to the opinion of
so successful as his happy genius and acknowledged the public, he was rather bafiled. The truth is the
merit certainly deserved. He never acquired a patron Doctor did not seem to possess the talents necessary for
among the great, who by his favour or beneficence re- political altercation. He wanted temper and coolness ;
Jieved him from the necessity of writing for a subsistence. and his friends accused his patron of baving denied him
The truth is, Dr Smollet possessed a loftiness and eleva- ecessary information, and even neglected the fulfil-
tion of sentiment and character which appear to have ling of some of his other engagements with him. Be
disqualified him for paying court to those who were ca- that as it will, the Doctor is said not to have forgotten
pable of conferring favours. It would be wrong to call him in bis subsequent performances,
this disposition pride or haughtiness ; for to his equals Besides the Briton, Dr Smollet is supposed to have
and inferiors he was ever ponte, friendly, and

generous. written other pieces in support of the cause he espoused. Booksellers may therefore be said to have been bis on- The Adventures of an Atom, in two volumes, are known ly patrons ; and from them he had constant employ- to be his production, ment in translating, compiling, and reviewing. He Iris constitution being at last greatly impaired by a translated Gil Blas and Don Quixote, both so happily, sedentary life and assiduous application to study, he that all the former translations of these excellent pro- went abroad for his health in June 1763, and continued ductions of genius have been alnıost superseded by bis. in France and Italy two years. He wrote an account His name likewise appears to a translation of Voltaire's of bis travels in a series of letters to some friends, which Prose Works; but little of it was done by his own were afterwards published in two volumes octavo, 1766. hand; he only revised it, and added a few notes. He During all that time he appears to have laboured under was concerned in a great variety of compilations. Ilis a constant fit of chagrin. A very slight perusal of these History of England was the principal work of that letters will sufficiently evince that this observation is kind. It had a most extensive sale; and the Doctor is founded in fact, and is indeed a melancholy instance of said to bave received 2000l. for writing it and the con- the influence of bodily distemper over the best dispositinuation.

tiou. In 1755 he set on foot the Critical Review, and His relation of his travels is actually cynical; for continued the principal manager of it till he went abroad which Sterne, in his Sentimental Journey, has animadfor the first time in the year 1763. He was perhaps verted on him under the character of Smelfungus. The too acrimonious sometimes in the conduct of that work; Doctor lived to return to his native country: but his and at the same time displayed too much sensibility health continuing to decline, and meeting with fresh when any of the unfortunate authors attempted to reta- mortifications and disappointments, he went back to liate whose works he had per haps justly censured. Italy, where lie died October 21. 1771. He was em

Among other controversies in which his engagements ployed, during the last years of his life, in abridging the in this publication involved him, the most naterial in Modern Universal History, great part of which he had its consequences was that occasioned by his remarks on originally written himself, particularly the histories of a pamphlet published by Admiral Knowles. That gen- France, Italy, and Germany. tleman, in defence of his conduct on the expedition to Ile certainly met with many mortifications and disRochfort, published a vindication of himself; which fal- appointments; which, in a leiter to Mr Garrick, he

, ling under the Doctor's examination, produced some thius feelingly expresses : “ I am old enough to have very severe strictures both on the performance and on seen and observed, that we are all playthings of Forthe character of the writer. The admiral immediately tune; and that it depends upon something as insignificommenced a prosecution against the printer; declaring cant and precarious as the tossing up of a halfpenny, at the same time that he desired only to be informed whether a man rises 10 affluence and honours, or contiwho the writer was, that if he proved to be a gentle- mes to liis dying day struggling with the difficulties and man he might obtain the satisfaction of one from him. disgraces of life.” In this affair the Doctor behaved both with prudence It would be needless to expatiate on the character of and with spirit. Desirous of compromising the dispute a man so well known as Dr Smollet, who has, besides, with the admiral in an amicable manner, he applied to given so many strictures of his own character and manhis friend Mr Wilkes to interpose bis good offices with ner of living in his writings, particularly in Humphrey his opponent. The admiral, however, was inflexible; Clinker ; where he appears under the appellation of and just as sentence was going to be pronounced against Air Serle, and has an interview with Mr Bramble; and the printer, the Doctor came into court, avowed him- his manner of living is described in another letter, where self the author of the Strictures, and declared himself young Velford is supposed to dine with him at his house ready to give Mr Knowles any satisfaction he chose. in Chelsea. No doubt be made money by his connec. VOL. XIX. Part II.

+

3 H

sault, any

Smollet, tions with the booksellers ; and had he been a rigid be relanded after drawback, the vessel and goods shall snin,gers.
Smugglers, economist, or endued with the gift of retention (an ex- be forfeited ; and every person concerned therein shall

pression of his own), he might have lived and died very forfeit double the value of the drawback (8 Ar. C. 13.).
independent. However, to do justice to his memory, Goods taken in at sea shall be forfeited, aod also the
his difficulties, whatever they were, proceeded not from vessel into which they are taken; and every person con-
extravagance or want of economy. He was hospitalile, cerned therein shall forfeit treble value (9 G.11.c.35.).
but not ostentatiously so; and his table was plentiful, A vessel hovering near the coast shall be forfeited, if
but not extravagant.

No doubt he had his failings ; under 50 tons burden ; and the goods shall also be for-
but still it would be difficult to name a man who was so feited, or the value thereof (5 G. III. c. 43.). Persons
respectable for the qualities of his head, or more ami- receiving or buying run goods shall forfeit 2cl. (8 G,
able for the virtues of his heart.

c. 18.). A concealer of run gocds shall forfeit treble
Since his death a monument has been erected to his value (8 G. c. 18.). Offering run goods to sale, the

.
memory near Leghorn, on which is inscribed an epitapha saire shall be forfeited, and the person to whom they
written in Latin by his friend Dr Armstrong, author. are offered may seize them; and the person offering
of The Art of Preserving Health, and many other ex- them to sale sliall forfeit treble value (1 G. c. 30.).
cellent pieces. An inscription written in Latin was like- A porter or other person carrying run gooils shall for-
wise inscribed on a pillar erecte:l to his memory on the feit treble value (9 G. II. c. 35.). Persons armed or
banks of the Leven by one of his relations.

disguised carrying run goods shall be guilty of felony,
To these memoirs we are extremely sorry to add, that and transported for seven years (8 G. c. 18. 9G. II.
so late as 1785 the widow of Dr Smollet was residing c. 35.).
in indigent circumstances at Leghorn. On this account But the last statute, 19 G. II. c. 34. is for this pur-
the tragedy of Venice Preserved was acted for her be- pose instar omnium ; for it makes all forcible acts of
nefit at Edinburgh on the 5th of March, and an excel- smuggling, carried on in defiance of the laws, or cven
Jenl prologue spoken on that occasion.

in disguise to evade themi, felony without benefit of
The pieces inserted in the posthumous collection of clergy: enacting, that if three or more persons shall
Dr Smollet's plays and poems are, The Regicide, a assemble, with fire-arms or other offensive weapons, to
tragedy: The Reprisal, a comedy ; Advice and Re- assist in the illegal exportation or importation of goods,
proof, two satires; The Tears of Scotland; Verses on or in rescuing the same after seizure, or in rescuing of-
a Young Lady; a Love Elegy, in imitation of Tibul- fenders in custody for such offences; or shall pass with
Jus; two Songs; a Burlesque Ode ; Odes to Mirth, to such goods in disguise ; or sliall wound, shoot ar, or as-
Sleep, to Leven Water, to Blue-ey'd Ann, and to In-

officers of the revenue when in the execution dependence.

of their duty; such persons shall be felons, without the
SMUGGLERS, persons who import or export pro-

benefit of clergy.
bibited goods without paying the duties appointed by When we consider the nature, and still more the bi-
the law.

story of mankind, we must allow that the enacting of
The duties of customs, it is said, were originally in. severe penal laws is not the way to prevent crimes. It
stituted, in order to enable the king to afford protec- were indeed much to be wished that there were

such tion to trade against pirates : they have since been con- thing as a political crime ; for the generality of men, tinued as a branch of the public revenue. As duties but especially the lower orders, not discerning the proimposed upon the importation of goods necessarily raise priety or utility of such laws, consider them as opprestheir price above what they might otherwise have been sive and tyrannical, and never hesitate to violate them sold for, a temptation is presented to import the com- when they can do it with impunity. Instead therefore Smith's nodity clandestinely and to evade the duty. Many of punishing smugglers, it would be much better to re-Tealth of persone, prompted by the hopes of gain, and consider- move the temptation. But the high dutics which have Nations,

rol. fii. ing the violation of a positive law of this nature as been imposed upon the importation of many different in no respect criminal (an idea in which they bave sorts of foreign goods, in order to discourage their cone been encouraged by a great part of the community, sumption in Great Britain, bave in many cases served who make no scruple to purchase smuggled goods), only to encourage smuggling; and in all cases have re

,

;
have engaged in this illicit trade. It was impossible duced the revenue of the customs below what more mo-
that government could permit this practice, which is derate duties would have afforded. The saying of Dr
highly injurious to the fair trader, as the smuggler is Swift, that in the arithmetic of the customs two and
enabled to undersell him, while at the same time he im- two, instead of making four, make some times only one,
pairs the national revenue, and thus wholly destroys the holds perfectly true with regard to such heavy duties,
end for which these duties were appointed. Such penal- which never could have been imposed, had not the mer-
ties are therefore inflicted as it was thought would pre- cantile system taught us, in many cases, to employ taxe
vent smuggling.

ation as an instrument, not of revenue, but of mono-
Many laws have been made with this view. If any poly.
Law Dic- goods be shipped or landed without warrant and pre- The bounties which are sometimes given upon the
tionary,

sence of an officer, the vessel shall be forfeited, and the exportation of home produce and manufactures, and the vol. ü.

wharfinger shall forfeit 100l, and the master or ma- drawbacks which are paid upon the re-exportation of
riner of any ship inward bound shall forfeit the value of the greater part of foreign goods, have given occasion
the goods : and any carman, porter, or other assisting, to many frauds, and to a species of smuggling more de-
shall be committed to gaol, till he find surety of his structive of the public revenue than any other. In or-
good behaviour, or until he shall be discharged by the der to obtain the bounty or drawback, the goods, it is
court of exehequer (13 and 14 C. II. c. 11.). If goods well known, are sometimes sbipped and sent to sea, but

SCOLA

Burn's

а

Smugglers soon afterwards clandestinely relanded in some other part church; a Latin bishop who has a salary from Rome, Smyrna of the country.

with the title of bishop of Smyrna in partibus infideliSmyrua Heavy duties being imposed upon almost all goods

Spail. um; and the English and Dutch factories have each imported, our merchant importery smuggle as much, their chaplain. and make entry of as little as they can. Our merchant The walks about the town are extremely pleasant, exporters, on the contrary, make entry of more than particularly on the west side of Frank street, where they export ; sometimes out of vanity, and to pass for there are several little groves of orange and lemon trees, great dealers in goods which pay no duty; and some- which being always clothed with leaves, blossoms, and times to gain a bounty or a drawback. Our exports, fruit, regale several of the senses at the same time. The in consequence of these different frauds, appear upon vines which cover the little bills about Smyrna afford the customhouse books greatly to overbalance our im- both a delightful prospect and plenty of grapes, of ports ; to the unspeakable comfort of those politicians which good wine is made. These bills are agreeably who measure the national prosperity by what they call interspersed with fertile plains, little forests of olives the balance of trade.

and other fruit-trees, and many pleasure-houses, to SMUT, in Husbandry, a disease in corn, when the which the Franks usually retire during the summer. In grains, instead of being filled with flour, are full of a the neighbourhood of Smyrna is great plenty of game stinking black powder. See Wheat.

and wild-fowl, and particularly deer and wild-hogs.
SMYRNA, or Ismir, at present the largest and The sea also abounds with a variety of good fish. The
richest city of Asia Minor, is situated in north latitude European Christians are here allowed all imaginable li-
38° 28', and in E. Long. 27° 25' from Greenwich, and berties, and usually clothe themselves after the Euro-

,
about 183 miles west by south of Constantinople. The pean manner.
town extends along the shore about half a mile on a The thief commerce of this city consists in raw silk,
gentle declivity. The houses of the English, French, silk-stuffs, grograms, and cotton yarn.

, "
and Dutch consuls, are handsome structures; these, with However, the unhealthfulness of the situation, and
most of those occupied by the Christian merchants, are more especially the frequent earthquakes, from which,
washed on one side by the sea, forming a street named it is said, they are scarcely ever free for two years 10-
Frank-street, from its being solely inhabited by Euro- gether, and which have been felt 40 days successively,
pean Christians. In the year 1763 the whole of this are an abatement of the pleasure that might otherwise
quarter was consumed by fire : the loss sustained by be enjoyed here. A very dreadful one happened in
this calamity in merchandise was estimatod at a million June 1668, wbich overthrew a great number of the
and a half of Turkish dollars, or near 200,000l. ster- bouses; and the rock opening where the castle stood,
ling. The port is one of the finest of the Levant, it swallowed it up, and no less than 5000 persons perisli.
being able to contain the largest fleet; and indeed ed on this occasion.
there are seldom in it fewer than 100 ships of different In the year 1758, so desolating a plague raged here,
nations.

that scarcely a sufficient number of the inhabitants sur-
A castle stands at its entrance, and conımands all the vived to gather in the fruits of the earth. In the year
shipping which sail in or out. There is likewise an old 1772, three-fourth parts of the city were consumed by
ruinous castle, near a mile in circumference, which stands fire; and six years after it was visited by the most dread-
in the upper part of the city, and according to tradi- ful earthquakes, which continued from the 25th of June
tion, was built by the empress Helena : and near it is to the 5th of July; by which successive calamities the
an ancient structure, said to be the remains of a palace city has been so much reduced, tbat its former conse-
where the Greek council was beld when Smyrna was quence is never likely to be restored.
the metropolis of Asia Minor. They also show the The ladies here wear the oriental dress, consisting of
ruins of an amphitheatre, where it is said St Polycarp, large trowsers or breeches, which reach to the ancle;
the first bishop, fought with lions.

long vests of rich silk or velvet, lined in winter with
This city is about four miles in circumference, and costly furs; and round their waist an embroidered zone
nearly of a triangular form ; but the side next the with clasps of silver or gold. Their hair is plaited,
mountain is much longer than the other sides. The and descends down the back often in great profusion.
houses are low, and mostly built with clay walls, on ac- The girls have sometimes abové twenty thick tresses,
count of the earthquakes to thich the country is sub- besides two or three encircling the head as a cornet,
ject; but the caravanseras and some other of the public and set off with flowers and plumes of feathers, pearls,
buildings have an air of magnificence. The streets are or other jewels. They commonly stain it of a chesnut
wide, and almost a continued bazar, in which a great colour, which is the most desired. Their apparel and
part of the merchandise of Europe and Asia is exposed carriage are alike antique. It is remarkable that the
to sale, with plenty of provisions ; though these are not trowsers are mentioned in a fragment of Sappho as part
so cheap as in many other parts of Turkey, on account of the female dress.
of the populousness of the place, and the great resort SMYRNIUM, ALEXANDERS; a genus of plants be-
of foreigners. It is said to contain 15,000 Torks, longing to the class of pentandria, and to the order of
10,000 Greeks, 1800 Jews, 200 Armenians, and 200 digynia ; and in the natural system ranging under the
Franks: but the wbole population is computed at 45th order, Umbellate. See BOTANY Index.
120,coo. The Turks have 19 mosques ; two churches SNAFFLE, in the manege, is a very slender bit-
belong to the Greeks; one to the Armenians ; and the month without any branches, much used in England;
Jews have eight synagogues. The Romanists have the true bridles being reserved for war.
three convents. There is also one of the fathers Della SNAIL, in Zoology. See HELIX, CONCHOLOGY
Terra Santa. Here resides an archbishop of the Greek Index, and Limax, HELMINTHOLOGY Index.

3 H 2

SNAKE,

Snike.

a

a

SNAKE, in Zoology. See ANGUIS and SERPENS, or snake-stones, are found in many parts of England, Snake OPHIOLOGY Index.

particularly in Yorkshire, where they are very plentiful 0 SVAKE-Stones, Ammonita, in Natural IIistory, the in the alum rocks of several sizes.

Sneezing. name of a large genus of fossil shelis, very few if

ans

of Svake- Root. See PoLYGALA, BOTANY Index.
which are yet known in their recent state, or iiving SVIKE-Wred. See PoLYGONUM, BOTANY Index.
either on our own or any other shores; so that it seems SNAPEDRAGON. Sce ANTIRRHINUM, BOTANY
wonderful whence so vast a number and variety of them Inder.
should be brought into our subterranean regions. They SNEEZING, a convulsive motion of the muscles of
seem indeed dispersed in great plenty throughout the the breast, whereby the air is expelled from the nose
world, but nowhere are found in greater numbers, beau- with much vehemence and noise. It is caused by the
ty, and variety, than in our island.

irritation of the upper membrane of the nose, occasioned
Mr Harenberg found prodigious numbers ef them on by acrid substances floating in the air, or by medicines
the banks of a river in Germany. He traced this river called sternutatory.
throngh its several windings for many miles; and among This irritation is performed either externally, by
a great variety of belemnitæ, cornua ammonis, and coch- strong smells, as marjorum, roses, &c. or by dust floai-
litæ, of various kinds, he found also great quantities of ing in the air, and taken in by inspiration; or by sharp
wood of recent petrifaction, which still preserved plain pungent medicines, as cresses and other sternutatories,
marks of the axe by which it had been cut from the ibich vellicate the membrane of the nose; or internally,
trces then growing on the shore. The water of tliis river by the acrimony of the lympha or mucus, which natu-
he found in dry seasons, when its natural springs were rally moistens that membrane. The matters cast forth
not diluted with rains, to be considerably beavier than in sneezing come primarily from the nose and throat;
common water; and many experiments showed him the pituitary membrane continualiy exuding a mucus
that it contained ferruginous, as well as stony particles, thither; and, secondarily, from the breast, the trachea,

,
in great quantity, whence the petrifactions in it appear- and the bronchia of the lungs.
ed the less wonderful, tbough many of them of recent The practice of saluting the person who sneezed ex-
date.

isted in Africa, among nations unknown to the Greeks
Of the cornua ammonis, or serpent-stones, he there and Romans. The accounts we have of Monomotapa
observed more than 30 different species. They lie im-

inform us *, that when the prince sneezes, all bis sub- * Strada, mersed in a bluish fossil stone, of a soft texture and jects in the capital are advertised of it, that they may

Prol. Acad. fatty appearance, in prodigious numbers, and of a great offer up prayers for his safety. The author of the Convariety of sizes, from the larger known sorts down to quest of Peru assures us, that the cacique of Guachoia such as could not be seen without very accurate inspec. having sneezed in presence of the Spaniards, the Intion or the assistance of a microscope. Such as lie in dians of his train fell prostrate before him, stretched the softest of these stones are soft like their matrix, and forth their hands, and displayed to him the accustomed easily crumble to pieces; others are liarder. In a piece marks of respect, while they invoked the sun to enof this stone, of the bigness of a finger, it is common to lighten him, to defend bim, and to be his constant find 30 or more of these fossils; and often they are seen

guard. only in form of white specks, so minute that their fi- Every body knows that the Romans saluted each gure cannot be distinguished till examined by the mi- other on these occasions: and Pliny relates t, that Ti-t Plin. His croscope. berius exacted these signs of homage when drawn in his Nat. lib

. ii. They all consist of several volutæ, which a' e different chariot. Superstition, whose influence can debase every in number in the different species, and their striæ also thing, had degraded this custom for several ages, by are extremely various; some very deep with very high attaching favourable or unfavourable omens to sneezing ridges between them, others very slight; some straight, according to the bour of the day or night, according to others crooked; others undulated, and some termina- the signs of the zodiac, according as a work was more ting in, dots, tubercles, or cavities, towards the back, or less advanced, or according as one had sneezed to the and others having tubercles in two or three places. right or to the left s. If a man sneezed at rising from | Spond. They are all composed of a great number of chambers table or from his bed, it was necessary for bim to sit or

Homeri

Comment or cells, in the manner of the nautilus Græcorum, each lie down again. You are struck with astonishment, said having a communication with the others, by means of a Timotheus to the Athenians, who wished to return into pipe or siphunculus. There is a small white shell fish of the harbour with their fleet ļ, because he had sneezed; Frontin. Barbadoes, which seems truly a recent animal of this you are struck with astonishment, because among 10,000 lib. 1. cap. genus ; and in the East Indies there is another also, there is one man whose brain is moist. small and grayishı; but the large and beautifully mark- Polydore Virgil pretends, that in the time of Greed ones are found only fossil.

gory the Great, there reigned in Italy an epidemic dis-
They are composed of various fossil bodies, often of jeniper, which carried off by sneezing all those who
quarry stone, sometimes of the matter of the common were seized by it; and that this pontill ordered prayers
pyrites, and of a great variety of other substances; and to be made against it, accompanied by certain signs of
though they appear usually mere stones, yet in some the the cross. But besides that, there are very few cases in
pearly part of the original shell is preserved in all its which sneezing can be considered as dangerous, and that
beauty. Sometimes also, while the outer substance is it is frequently a favourable symptom ll, it is evident, i llippo-
of the matter of the pyrites, or other coarse, stony, or that we ought not to date from the sixth century the orat. Hal-
mineral matter, the inner cavity is filled with a pure origin of a custom which loses itself in the obscurity of leri Phga.
white spar of the common plated texture. This gives antiquity. Avicenna and Cardan say, it is a sort of con-
a great beauty to the specimen. The cornua ammonis, vulsion, which gives occasion to dread an epilepsy, and

,
that

cap. 2.

a

a

II

still re

a

crat.

ING.

XTIL

army, moved

N

ο Sneezing that this disease is endeavoured to be warded off by made on purpose, sealed it up hermetically. He instant- Sneezing

prayers. Clement of Alexandria considers it as a mark ly fies back to his favourite automaton, and opening
of intemperance and effeminacy, which ought to be the phial holds it close to the statue; the rays

Snoring.
proscribed. And he inveighs bitterly against those who taining all their activity, insinuate themselves through
endeavour to procure sneezing by external aid. Mon- the pores, and set the fictitious man a sneezing. Pro-
taigne, on the contrary, explains this fact in a tone ra- metheus, transported with the success of his machine,
ther cynical. It is singular enough, that so many ridi- offers up a fervent prayer, with wishes for the preserva-
culous, contradictory, and superstitious opinions, have tion of so singular a being. His automaton observed
not abolished those customary civilities which are still him, remembering his ejaculations, was very careful, on
preserved equally among high and low; and which on- the like occasions, to offer these wishes in behalf of his
ly the Anabaptists and Quakers have rejected, because descendants, who perpetuated it from father to son in
they have renounced salutations in every case.

all their colonies.
Ámong the Greeks sneezing was almost always a good SNIGGLING, a method of fishing for eels, chiefly
omen. It excited marks of tenderness, of respect, and used in the daytime, when they are found to hide

attachment. The genius of Socrates informed bim by themselves near wears, mills, or flood-gates. It is per* Plutarch sneezing, when it was necessary to perform any action* formed thus: Take a strong line and book, baited with de gen. Sa The young Parthenis, hurried on by her passion, resol- a garden worm, and observing the holes where the eels t dristen

ved to write to Sarpedon an avowal of her love t; she lie hid, thrust your bait into them by the help of a
sneezes in the most tender and impassioned part of her stick; and if there be any, you shall be sure to have
letter: This is sufficient for her; this incident supplies a bite; and may, if your tackling hold, get the largest
the place of an answer, and persuades her that Sarpedon eels.
is her lover. Penelope, barassed by the vexatious court- SNIPE, in Ornithology. See SCOLOPAX and Shoot-

ship of her suitors, begins to curse them all, and to pour
Homeri forth vows for the return of Ulysses I. Her son Tele- SNORING, in Medicine, otherwise called stertor, is
Odyss, lib. machus interrupts her by a loud sneeze. She instantly a sound like that of the cerchnon, but greater and more
exults with joy, and regards this sign as an assurance of

manifest.
the approaching return of her husband. Xenophon was Many confound those affections, and make them to
harangning his troops ; a soldier sneezed in the mo- difler only in place and magnitude, calling by the name
ment when he was exhorting them to embrace a dange- of stertor that sound or noise which is heard or supposed
rous but necessary resolution. The whole

to be made in the passage between the palate and the
by this presage, determined to pursue the project of nostrils, as in those who sleep; that boiling or bubbling

their general; and Xenophon orders sacrifices to Jupi- noise, which in respiration proceeds from the larynx or ( Xenoph. ter the preserver s.

head, or orifice of the aspera arteria, they call cerchnon; This religious reverence for sneezing, so ancient and but if the sound comes from the aspera arteria itself, so universal even in the times of Homer, always excited it is called cerchnos, that is, as some understand it, a the curiosity of the Greek philosophers and of the rab- rattling, or as others a stridulous or wheezing roughness bins. These last have spread a tradition, that, after the of the aspera arteria. In dying persons this affection is creation of the world, God made a general law to this called by the Greeks goxxos, rhenchos, which is a snorpurport, that cvery living man should seeze but once ing or rattling kind of noise, proceeding as it were from

in his life, and that at the same instant he should render a conflict between the breath and the humours in the | Acad. des up bis soul into the hand of his Creator ||, without any

aspera arteria.
Inscrip. preceding indisposition. Jacob obtained an exemption This and such like affections are owing to a weak-
vol. iv.

from the common law, and the favour of being informed ness of nature, as when the lungs are full of pus or hu-
of his last hour : He sneezed and did not die; and this mours: to which purpose we read in the Prognostics of
sign of death was changed into a sign of life. Notice Hippocrates, “ it is a bad sign when there is no expec-
of this was sent to all the princes of the earth; and they toration, and no discharge from the lungs, but a noise

;
ordained that in future sneezing should be accompanied as from an ebullition is heard in the aspera arteria from
with forms of blessing, and vows for the persons who a plenitude of humour.” Expectoration is suppressed
sneezed.

either by the viscidity of the humour, which requires to
Aristotle remounts likewise to the sources of natural be discharged, and which adhering to the aspera arteria,
religion. He observes, that the brain is the origin of and being there agitated by the breath, excites that

the nerves, of our sentiments, our sensations, the seat of bubbling noise or stertor; or by an obstruction of the Aristot. the soul, the image of the Divinity *; that upon all bronchia ; or, lastly, by a compression of the aspera ar

these accounts, the substance of the brain has ever been teria and throat, whence the passage is straitened, in
held in honour; that the first men swore by their head; which the humours being agitated, excite such a kind
that they durst not touch nor eat the brains of any ani- of noise as before described. Hence Galen calls those
mal; that it was even a sacred word which they dared who are strait-breasted stertorous. That author assigns
not to pronounce. Filled with these ideas, it is not but two causes of this symptom, which are either the
wonderful that they extended their reverence even to straitness of the passage of respiration or redundance of
sneezing. Such is the opinion of the most ancient and humours, or both together; but it is necessary to add a
sagacious philosophers of Greece.

tbird, to wit, the weakness of the faculty, which is the
According to mythology, the first sign of life Pro- cause of the rhenchos in dying persons, where nature is
metheus's artificial man gave was by sternutation. This too weak to make discharges.
supposed creator is said to have stolen a portion of the From what has been said we conclude, that this
solar rays; and filling with them a phial, which he bad symptom or this sort of fervour or ebullition in the

throat,

Anab.

a

a

a

in Prob.