SPIRE, or SPEIER, Georg von, governor of Venezuela, b. in Spire, Germany, about 1496; d. in Coro, Venezuela, in 1540. He entered as a boy the banking-house of the famous Welsers, of Augsburg, and worked his way up as their confidential agent, accompanying in the latter capacity the fleet that was armed by the Welsers in 1528, and sent under Ambrosius von Alfinger to conquer Venezuela. Returning to Europe after Alfinger's death, Spire obtained from Charles V. the appointment of governor of Venezuela, despite the claims of Nicholas Federmann, who had been Alfinger's lieutenant. He armed a new expedition in Spain and the Canary islands, and on 22 Feb., 1534, landed at Coro. Against Welser's advice, Spire had appointed Federmann his lieutenant. In the following year, accompanied by 450 regular troops and 1,500 friendly Indians, they set out on a journey of exploration to the interior. After marching together for about 200 miles, they divided into two parties, agreeing to meet afterward. Spire experienced great hardships from hostile Indians, and the soldiers, unaccustomed to march under a burning sun, mutinied several times. When at last they reached the appointed place of meeting without finding any trace of Federmann, the soldiers were discouraged, but Spire animated them with the hope of discovering the riches of the “El Dorado,” of which the survivors of Alfinger's expedition had brought the first reports. They continued the march to the south, but, when the rainy season set in, the overflow of the rivers impeded progress, and the consequent fevers decimated their ranks. Spire persevered for a long time in his search for the El Dorado, until at last his progress was arrested by a mighty river, probably the Orinoco, or its confluent, the Apure, and early in 1539 he returned to Coro with only eighty ragged and sickly men out of the host he had led forth more than four years before. He set out immediately for Europe to lay his complaint against Federmann before the Welsers, but heard in Santo Domingo of the former's return to Spain, and was persuaded by the audiencia to return to his government, where he died soon afterward. Spire's narrative to Charles V., which he sent from Santo Domingo, is said to have been published, but no copy of it is known to exist. It is hoped that the manuscript may be among the papers in the archives at Simancas, of which the Spanish government has recently undertaken the publication.
SPITZKA, Edward Charles, physician, b. in
New York city, 10 Nov., 1852. He was educated
at the College of the city of New York, and
graduated at the medical department of the
University of New York in 1873, after which he
studied at the medical schools in Leipsic and
Vienna, serving in the latter as assistant in the
laboratory of embryology and histology. On his
return he settled in practice in New York, making
a specialty of the treatment of internal diseases,
particularly of the nervous system. In 1880-'3
he was professor of medical jurisprudence and the
anatomy and physiology of the nervous system in
the New York post-graduate medical school. He
has been consulting physician of the Northeastern
dispensary since 1884. Dr. Spitzka has made original
investigations in the anatomy of the nervous
system, and has discovered the interoptic lobes of
saurians, the absence of pyramid tracts in the
cetacea, and numerous facts in the anatomy of the
human brain. He has been frequently consulted
as a medical expert in cases where insanity or
injury to the brain or spinal cord was a subject of
litigation. Conspicuous among these was his atti-
tude in the trial of President Garfield's assassin, where both prosecution and defence endeavored to retain his services, but, failing, secured his attendance through an attachment. He then testified to the prisoner's insanity, and was the only expert that did so. Dr. Spitzka is a member of various societies, has been secretary of the Society of medical jurisprudence and medicine since 1886, and was vice-president of the section in neurology at the Ninth international medical congress in 1887. In 1877 his essay on the somatic etiology
of insanity gained the W. and S. Tuke prize, which
is given in international competition by the British
medico-physiological association, and in 1878, by his paper on the action of strychnine, he won the William A. Hammond prize, which is awarded by the American neurological association. He is the author of numerous contributions to medical journals, and was one of the editors of the “American Journal of Neurology” in 1881-'4. The sections on diseases of the spinal cord and on inflammation, anæmia, and hyperanæmia of the brain in
William Pepper's “System of Medicine”
(Philadelphia, 1887) were written by him, and he has
published “Treatise on Insanity” (New York, 1883).
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SPOFFORD, Harriet Prescott, author, b. in Calais, Me., 3 April, 1835. She is the daughter of Joseph N. Prescott and elder sister of Mary N. Prescott. She was taken in youth by her parents to Newburyport, Mass., which has ever since been her home, though she has spent many of her winters in Boston and Washington. She attended the Putnam free school in her adopted city, and later the Pinkerton academy at Derry, N. H., where she was graduated at seventeen years of age. At Newburyport her prize essay on Hamlet drew the attention of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who soon became her friend, and gave her counsel and encouragement. Her father was attacked with slow paralysis about 1850, which rendered him incapable of exertion during the remainder of his life. This misfortune preyed upon the mind of her mother, and rendered her a confirmed invalid. As Harriet was the eldest child, she felt the need of making her talents available, and began courageously to work, contributing to the story-papers of Boston, earning small pay with a great deal of labor. She once wrote fifteen hours a day, and continued her toil for years. These early stories have never been acknowledged or collected. In the “Atlantic Monthly,” in 1859, appeared a sparkling story of Parisian life, bearing the title “In a Cellar.” James Russell Lowell, then editor of the magazine, admired it, but refrained from publishing it, under the belief that it must be a translation from the French, until he was assured that it was written by Harriet Prescott. The story made her reputation, and she became from that day a welcome contributor, both of prose and poetry, to the chief periodicals of the country. Her fiction has very little in common with what is regarded as representative of the
