Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/594

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

S W E

4hd gravedos ; and fometimes they bring on congestions, inflammations, and convi.il (ions. Meilwd of treatment. So long asfweats bring on no bad fymp- toms in illneffes, they are to be rather promoted than checked, even though they may feem profufe in quantity ; and in this cafe, the proper regimen is a moderate warmth, a quiet ftate of the body, and frequent draughts of warm liquors ; but when the ftrength is found to be too much exhaufted by thefe fweats, fmall dofes of nitre are found of great fervice.

When different diforders arife from the fupprefTion of fwcats, nothing is of greater fervice than the compound powder of antimonium diaplioreticum, crabs eyes, and nitre, given in fmall dofes every three hours; and a quiet pofture of the body is to be ordered, which greatly tends to promote /•weathig', and frequent draughts of warm and weak liquors are to be taken, and the bowels are to be relaxed with a clyfter, or a gentle purge, if there be no fymptom neceflarily forbidding it. In regard to thofe perfons, who are naturally very difficult to be/weated, a draught made of frefh arum- root and wine, or vinegar, ufually brings on profufe /went- ing, if they are put to bed, and warm liquors drank after- wards. It is a very good general caution, that profufe Jweats, if they have continued ever fo many months, are never to be repreffed by aftringents ; for in that cafe they are ufually attended with fymptoms much worfe than the original complaint. The common method of forcing out uipprefTedyiwff/.r by the hot alexipharmics, and volatile falts, is by no means advifeahle in any cafe. Bleeding, judici- oufly timed, is often of very great fervice in promoting /wests. When the natural Jweats of children are repelled, they become fuddenly feverifh and ill, and nothing relieves them till the Jweats are recalled. This may be done limply, by keeping them warmer than before, in moft cafes ; but when that fails, the gentle abforbents are to be prefcribed, and 'if they fuck, the nurfe may take the common alexi- pharmic medicines: crabs eyes are as proper as any thing for the child in this cafe, and for the nurfe the lapis contray- erva. The convulfions of children very often arife from the fuppreflion of their fweats, and are always then taken off by making them fweat again. Junker's Confp. Med.

P- 53°-

SWEATING -&:«/*'. The natives of North- America, when we firft fettled among them, had a great many houfes to fweat in, it being their gtneral remedy for difeafes of what- ever kind ; but at prefent they are lefs ufed among them. The cave, or /weating-hou/e, was ufually eight feet in dia- meter, and four feet high, the roof being fupported by fticks, ' or boards. They ufually dug thefe caves in the fide of a hill, and as near as could be to fome rivet, or pond. The entrance into the cave was fmall, and when any perfon was fweating in it, the door was covered with a blanket, or fkin. Near the cave they ufed to make a large fire, and heat in this a quantity of ftones, perhaps five hundred weight; thefe they rolled into the cave, and piled up in a heap in the middle. When this is done the Indians go in naked, as many as pleafe, and fit around the heap of ftones; end as foen as they begin to grow faint, which is ufually in a quarter of an hour, they come out, and plunge themfelves all over in the water, remaining in it a minute or two; and repeating this a fecond time, they drefs themfelves, and go about their bufinefs.

This has been for many ages ufed among them with fuccefs, in cafes of colds, furfeits, fciaticas, and pains fixed in their limbs, and the Englifli have often ufed the fame means, and found relief by it. It is pra&ifed equally at all times of the year, and the Indians do it not only in ficknefles, but by way of refrefhment after long journies, and other fatigues, and to ftrengthen themfelves for any expeditions. Fhilof. Tranf. N° 384. p. 131.

Turf Sweating. See Tvrf -/wearing.

SwEATiNG-rrw, in the manege, is a piece of a fey the about a foot long, and of the breadth of about three or four fin- gers, very thin, and fuch as cuts only with one fide. When a horfe is very hot, and the grooms have a mind to lcfTen the fweat, or make it glide off, they take this knife or iron in their two hands, and gently run the cutting edge alonn- the horfe's fkin, commonly with the grain, or as the hair lies, and but feldom againft it ; with intent to fcraoe off the fweat, and dry the horfe.

Sweating-hww. See an account of the remains of a Roman fweating-room in the Philofophical Tran fact ions, N° 461. feet. 29.

SwEATiNG-fche/s. See Sudor Anglicanus, Cycl. and Suppl.

SWEET {Cycl.) — By a /west is underftood any vegetable juice, whether obtained by means of fugar, raifins, or other foreign or domeftic fruit, which is added to wines, with a defign to improve them. It is plain, from the making of artifi- cial muft, or ftum, by means of fine fugar, with a fmall ad- dition of tartar, that the art of /wcrf- making might receive a high degree of improvement, by the ufing pure fugar, as one general wholefome /weet, inftead of thofe infinite mix- tures of honey, raifins, fyrups, treacle, ftum, cyder, fite. wherewith the fweet-mzkas fupply the wine-coopers to

S W 1

lengthen out, or amend their wines : for pure fugar being added to any poor wine, will ferment therewith, and im- prove it, and bring it to a proper degree of ftrength and vi- nofity. If the wine that is to be amended is tart of itfelf, no tartar fhould be added to the fugar, but if it be too /weet or lufcious, then the addition of tartar is neceffary. Sbaivs Lectures, p. 203. See the article Artificial Stum?, Sweet fabl'mate of mercury. See Mercurius dulcis. Sweet corn, a term ufed by the Indians to exprefs a fort of corn they are very fond of, and generally keep in their houfes,

While the ear of the maiz, or Indian corn, is yet green, but full, they gather it, and firft boil, and afterwards dry it, and lay it up for ufe in bags, or bafkets. When they eat it, they boil it again, either whole, or grofsly beaten in a mortar; they then mix it with fifth, or with venifon, or beaver flefh, and account it a very fine difh. The green ears, or frefh fweet corn, they alfo fometimes eat, as foon as it is gathered, roafting it before the fire, and then picking out the grains. This is a new fupply of food for them many times, when their winter, or Iaft harveft-ftore is ex- haufted. Their foldiers alfo commonly go out to war againft their enemies about this time of the year, and find this fup- ply in their enemies fields. See Guinea corn.

SwEET-J-P^i/liams, the Englifli name of feveral fpecies of carta- phyitus, or pink. See the article Pink. There is a great variety of fpecies, and very elegant diverfi- ties of colouring in thefe flowers ; the principal difference, however, is between the fingle and double kinds. The fingle kinds are to be propagated by fowing their feeds in March on a bed of light earth ; in May they will be ready to plant out, and muft then be fet at fix inches diftance in beds of the fame kind of earth. In thefe beds they ftiould remain till Michaelmas, and then be tranfplanted to the places where they are to remain, They will flower the next year in May, and ripen their feeds in Auguft, when that; of the beft flowers fhould be faved.

The double kinds are propagated by layers in the fame man- ner with the carnations, they love a middling foil, neither too light, nor too ftiff; they continue flowering a long time, and are very beautiful, efpccially the mule-kind, which produces yearly two full blooms of flowers, the one in May, the other in July. Miller's Gardner's Dictionary.

SWELLING (CycL) — Swellings in the face and falivary glands, without any fever, or rednefs of the fkin, fometimes happen in fummer months, and often give way to a gentle purge or two. See Medic. Efl*. Edinb. Abridg. Vol. 1. p. 65. Thefe /wettings are fometimes erifipclatous, and fall chiefly on theforehead and eyelids, and yield to purges and blifters. Ibid.

SWIFT, in zoology, a name given by many to the common newt, or eft. See the article Eft.

SWIFTERS, in a ftiip, ropes belonging to the main-mafts and fore-mafts, which help to fuccour or ftrengthen the ftirowds, and to keep the mails fliff: they have pendants fattened under the fhrowds, at the head of the mafts, with a double block, through which the /wi/ier is reeved; which. at the ftandiug part has a fingle block with a hook, hitched into a ring at the chain-wale, and fo the fall being haled up, helps to ftrengthen the maft ; yet it is belayed about the timber heads of the lower rails aloft,

SWIFTING of a boat, is compaffing her gun-wale round with a good rope, to ftrengthen her in ftrefs of weather, that fhe be not (battered by the violence of the fea.

Swiftin G the capflan-bars, aboard a fhip, is ftraining a rope all round the outer ends of the capftan-bars, in order to ftrengthen them, and make them bear all alike, and toge- ther, when the men heave or work there.

Swifting ofaJJnp, is either bringing her aground, or upon a careen ; for then they ufe to fwift the mafts, to eafe and ftrengthen them, that all the weight may not hang by the head ; which is done by laying fail all the pendants of the /ivifters and tackles with a rope clofe to the maft, and as- near to the blocks as can be ; and then to carry forward the tackles, and there to bowfe, or hale them down as hard and taught as poffible. The word of command here, is, Ho! bowfe men ! All this is done alfo to keep the maft from rifing out of the ftep.

SWIGGING, a particular way of caftrating rams.

The operation is performed by throwing the creature on his back, in which pofture he is held ; then a ftring is drawn about his tefticles as tight as pofiible, and fixing it there, the part is anointed with frefh butter. The beaft. is then left to feed, and in two or three days the tefticles grow fo rotten, as to fall off with the ftring, or may be plucked away with a fmall force. Beyle's Works Abr. Vol. 1. p. 87.

SWIMMING effijkes. SeeNATATio, and AiR-bladder. ■

SWINE, /us. See the article Sus.

Swine are very profitable creatures to the owner, being kept at fmall expence, feeding on things that would be otherwifc thrown away, and producing a very large increafe. They are apt to dig up the ground, and to break fences ; but this may be prevented, by putting rings in their nofes, and yoaks about their necks. Leicefterihire, North am pton-

ihirej