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in the mouth, and is perfectly pure and fine, and of a very auftere aftringent tafte, and ferments very violently with aqua fortis.
It was dug in Cappadocia, and carried for fale to the city Sinope, whence it had its name. It is now found in plenty in the New Jerfeys in America, and is called by the people there blood-fane* from its ftaining the hands to a blood co- lour, and may probably be had in many other places ; and this deferves thoroughly enquiring into, fince there i'eems not one among the earths more worthy notice. Its fine texture and body, with its high florid colour, muft make it
a' very valuable to painters, and its powerful aftringency equally fo in medicine. The antients were well acquainted with it in fluxes and haemorrhages, and experience mews it pofleffes the fame virtues at this time. The deepeft coloured is ever the moft aftringent. Hill's Hift. of Foff, p. 60.
SINOPIS, in natural, hiftory, a name by which fome authors have called the Sinopic ochre, commonly called ruhrica Si- nopica. Hill's Hift. of Foflils, p. 60. See the article Sino- Pica terra.) fupra.
SINUATED leaf, in botany. See Leaf.
SINUS [Cycl.)~— Sinus of an artery, is ufed by fome for any part of an artery, where its fides are ftretched out beyond the ordinary proportional dimenfions elfewhere. Med. Efl. Edinb. Abridg. Vol. 2. p. 410.
Morgagni has obferved four fuch finnfes in the aorta ; three of them anfwering to the femilunar valves, and the fourth is all that part of the aorta, between the former jmitfis and the origin of the common trunk of the right fubclavian and carotid arteries. He gives fome reafons to prove, that the nervus acceffbrius arifes from the eighth pair, to be joined to the medulla fpinalis. Med. Efl". ibid.
Sinus of the womb, is ufed for any cavity within its fubftance. Thefe Jinufes are much of the fame texture with the cells of the fpleen, or rather of the corpora cavernofa penis ; being membranous cavities communicating with each other, and having numerous arteries fpread on them, whofe lateral branches open into the cells, from which veins go out to be joined to other veins, that return the blood from the other parts of the womb.
Thefe ftnufes are diftended with blood in the time of the menfes ; and their orifices are then alfo enlarged. During the time of pregnancy the fmifes, and their canals, that open into the womb, are gradually diftended and en- larged; fo that, at the end of nine months, ihefnufts will contain the largeft fingers, and the canals from them will
' receive the little finger. Vid. Monro, in Medic. Efl". Edinb. Vol. 2. Art. 9.
SIPHAC, a name ufed by fome authors for the peritonaum.
SIPHILIS, a name ufed by fome authors for the lues venerea, or French-pox.
EIPHITA, a word ufed by Paracelfus, and his followers, with the addition of parva and magna, for two diforders. The fiphita parva fignifies the chorea fancti Viti, or St. Vitus's dance ; and the fiphita magna, walking in time of fleep,
SIPHNIUS lapis, in the natural hiftory of the antients, a fubftance found in great plenty in the ifland Siphnus, in the ^Egean fea.
It was dug up in large manes in the neighbourhood of the fea, and when frefh might be cut or worked by the turner Into any forts of veflels, by reafon of its foftnefs ; but when afterwards burnt and oiled over, it became black _nd folid, and was fit for any fervice ; and- the veflels made of it bore the fire very well, and as thofe of earthen-ware with us, for the common offices of boiling, tsY. In many parts of Eu- rope they ftill find the fame fubftance, and call it lapis le- betum^ ufing it in the fame manner. It is no other than the faatites, or foap-rock, as it is called with us, common in Cornwall, though our people have not thought of putting rt to that ufe. Hill's Theophr. p. 106. See the article Steatites.
SIPHONANTHEMUM, in botany, the name of a genus of plants eftablifhed by Dr. Amman. The name is derived from the Greek tri$ot 9 a tube, and *»G£/*ev, a flower. The characters of the genus are thefe. The flower confifts of one petal, and is tubulated and divided into feveral fegments ■ at the edge. The piftil arifes from the cup, and finally be- comes a fruit refembling four berries, nicely joined together. It is divided into four cells, and contains a number of round- ifh feeds. The ftalks of the plant are green and ftriated.
- The leaves ftand very clofely together, and are placed in no
Order ; they are very narrow, about three inches in length, and much refemble thofe of the willow; they ftand on very fliort pedicles, and are of a very deep green, both on the upper and under-fide. From the alse of the leaves, or a little above their infertions toward the top of the ftalks, there arife feveral pedicles, of about an inch in length, which di- vide into feveral others at their tops ; ufually each part into three, but often into four or five ; thefe are difpofed in the manner of the pedicles of the umbelliferous flowers, and each is terminated by a one-leaved cup, divided into five fegments, from which arife flowers compofed of a (lender tube, two or three inches long, of a yellowifti green, which at the end expands into four fegments of a pale yellow : in
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the middle of thefe there Hands a purple ftyle, which 13 crooked, and is furrounded by four {ramina of a purple co- lour, fuftaining each a triangular brown apex. In each of the four cells of the capiule there is contained one large greemih yellow feed. Acl. Petrop, Vol.8, p. 216.
SIPTACE, in natural hiftory, the name given by the ahtientis to a beautiful bird, of which they were very fond, and which was often kept in their houfes. Some have conjec- tured this to be the goldfinch, from the fine yellow they de- fcribe about it; but Pliny plainly makes it the parrot: he tells us, among other things, that it imitated the human, voice the beft of all birds.
SIRA, a name by which fome of the chemical writers have called orpiment.
SIRACAUSTUM, a name given by llefue to a medicine he recommends in acute difeafes.
SIR^EUM, a word ufed by fome to exprefs a fweet decoction, whether given in that form, or firft infpifiated into a fort of rob by evaporation.
SIREN {CycL) — Siren, in ichthyology, a name given by Artedi to the fea-monfter often defcribed by authors, but either not exifting at all, or not fo like man as their defcrip- tions make it.
Artedi fuppofes it to conftitute a peculiar genus of the pla- giuri: or cetaceous fifties. The characters he gives of it are thefe: it lias no pinnated tail; the head, neck, and breaff, down to the navel, reprefent thofe of the human fpe- cies; there are only two fins on the whole body, and thofe ftand on the breaft.
I'artholine, in his Hiftory of Curiofitlcs, defcribes fuch a fifti as this, under the name 0$ fyrene, ^ftnd Barchewitz under the "name of homo marinus. This author fays that he faw one at fea, and that it is wholly different from the manati, and from all other fifties. The Philofophical Tranfaflions alfo contain an account of a fea-man feen in the American feas, and feveral other writers of credit give countenance to the ftory. Their defcriptions tell us, that from the navel to the tail it is one fhapelefs mafs of fiefli, without any ap- pearance of finny tail, or any other part of the ftruflure of a fifli. The pectoral fins refemble hands, and are compofed of five bones, or fingers, joined by a membrane. With thefe it fwims. It were much to be wiihed, that fome ac- curate ichthyologiit might have an opportunity of feeing and examining this creature, if it really e:cifts different from the other animals of the fea. Artedi feems to doubt the truth of the accounts, but thinks it better not to judge of a thing not yet feen, than to pronounce any thing raftily again ft the accounts of creditable authors. Artedi, Genen Pifc* p, 52.
Siren is alfo a name given by MoufFet, and other authors, to a fpecies of bee ; of which they diftinguifh two kinds, a larger and a finailer. Thefe differ greatly from the common bee, in that they live folitary, and never unite into fwarms, or build nefts, or make combs.
SIRI, among the Romans, were fubterranean caves, or vaults* in'which wheat could be kept found and frefh for fifty years. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. in voc.
SIRIASIS, a name given by medical writers to a difeafe to which children are fubject ; it confifts in an inflammation of the brain and its membranes, and is attended with a de- preulire of the fontanella, or hollowncfs of the eyes, a burn- ing fever, a palenefs and dryneis of the whole body, and an utter lofs of appetite.
SIRICON plumbi, a name given by fome chemical writers to calcined lead, or the grey powder made of lead by a flight calcination in an open fire.
SISARUM, Jkirret, in botany, the name of a genus of um- belliferous plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the rofaceous kind, being compofed of feveral petals, arranged in a circular form. The cup becomes a fruit compofed of two feeds, which are flender and gibbofe on one fide, and flat on the other. To this it is to be added, that the roots are feveral large and long ones, hang- ing from the fame head.
We know of no other fpecies of this genus, but the common ftfarum. Tourn.luk. p. 308. See Skirret. The tafte of the Jkirrei-toot has fomewhat of a bitternefs and fubaftringency in .it. It ftrengthens the ftomach, and. is of good nourifhment. It proves diuretic, and is by fome pretended to be a remedy againft the ill effects of mercury; btit this is an idle opinion.
SISER, in botany, a name given to the ffcirret, otherwife called the white carrot, or yellow parfnep. See the article Si-
SARUM.
SISKIN, in zoology, the common Engliih name of a finging bird, kept in cages in fome paits of England, where it is common, and called by authors fphus and Ugurinus, Ray's Ornithol. p. 192. See the article Spinos.
SISON fyriacum, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the ammi, or bifhop's weed, a plant, whofe feeds were once much in ufe in medicine. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.
SISSITIEPTERIS, in botany, a name ufed by Pliny, and fome others of the old authors, for the phnpinella, or burnet, Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.
1 SISTRUIVL
