SEANCE 315 SEASIDE GBAPE six or eight inches long and two or three inches in width. SEANCE, a sitting; a session, as of some public body; specifically applied by spiritualists to a sitting with the view of evoking spiritual manifestations or of holding communication with spirits. SEA OF TIBERIAS. See Galilee, Sea of. SEAPLANE. See Aeronautics. SEARCH LIGHT, an electric arc light the rays of which are collected in a par- allel beam that may be projected to a great distance and turned in any direc- tion. Search lights are used on naval vessels to show at night the approach of hostile vessels, and to detect floating mines or torpedo boats; also for illumi- nating signal flags and for signaling by long and short flashes. This system of signaling is used in the army also. Mes- sages may be sent 20 miles or more. Search lights are, broadly speaking, of two kinds: concentrated beams and dis- persed beams. The latter were extensive- ly used in the World War to illuminate large areas of water that had been laid with mines. The light is also used in the commercial marine, by liners, etc. SEARCH, RIGHT OF, in international law, the right of belligerents, during war, to visit and search the vessels of neutrals for contraband of war. Some powerful nations have, at different times, refused to submit to this search ; but all the high- est authorities upon the law of nations acknowledge the right in time of war as resting on sound principles of public juris- prudence, and upon the institutes and practices of all great maritime powers. The duty of self-preservation gives bellig- erent nations this right; and as the law now stands, a neutral vessel refusing to be searched would from that proceeding alone be condemned as a lawful prize. The right of search, however, is confined to private merchant vessels, and does not apply to public ships of war. The exer- cise of this right must also be conducted with due care and regard to the rights and safety of vessels. A neutral is bound not only to submit to search, but to have his vessel duly furnished with the neces- sary documents to support her neutral character, the want of which is a strong presumptive evidence against the ship's neutrality, and the spoliation of them is still stronger presumption. There may be cases in which the master of a neutral ship may be warranted in defending him- self against extreme violence threatened by a cruiser grossly abusing his commis- sion; but, except in extreme cases, no merchant vessel has a right to say for itself, nor any armed vessel for it, that it will not submit to visitation or search, or be carried into a proximate court for judicial inquiry. If, on making the search, the vessel be found employed in contraband trade, or in carrying enemies' property, or troops or dispatches, she is liable to be taken and brought in for adjudication before a prize-court. The above doctrine has been fully admitted in England ; - but the Government of the United States has energetically refused to submit to the right assumed by the English of searching neutral vessels on the high seas for deserters, and other persons liable to military and naval serv- ice. This question, yet not specifically settled, was one of the chief causes of the War of 1812. In 1914, 1915 and 1916, during the World War, American ship- ping interests contested the right of Great Britain to stop neutral ships and take them into British ports. The con- troversy was not settled when the United States entered the war. SEARCH WARRANT, in law, a war- rant granted by a justice of the peace to enter the premises of a person suspected of secreting stolen goods, in order to dis- cover and seize the goods if found. Sim- ilar warrants are granted to search for property or articles in respect of which other offenses are committed, as base coin, coiners' tools, arms, gunpowder, ni- troglycerin, liquors, etc., kept contrary to law. SEA SERPENT, the name given to gigantic animals, presumedly of serpen- ■ tine form, which have been frequently described by sailors and others. Gigantic cuttlefishes, now proved to have a veritable existence, might in many cases imitate an elongated marine form, swimming near the surface of the sea. It is by far the most plausible theory of sea serpent existence to suppose that most of the animals described are really giant cuttlefishes of the Loligo or squid type. The marine snakes or hydrophidse of the Indian ocean would also serve to person- ate the "great unknown" if unusually large. SEA SICKNESS, a nausea, or tendency to vomit, which varies, in respect of dura- tion, in different persons upon their first going to sea. The immediate or exciting cause of sea sickness is variably attrib- uted to the motion of the vessel, or to the effect produced on the eye by moving ob- jects, and by that sense conveyed to the Drain. SEASIDE GRAPE, a small tree of the genus Coccolobea (C. uvifera), natural order Polygonacese, which grows on the sea coasts of Florida and the West In-
