SARGENT 252 SARPI PIETRO the commission appointed by the Na- tional Academy of Sciences for the estab- lishment of a forest policy for the United States. He was an officer and member of many foreign and American societies and wrote: "The Woods of the United States"; "The Forest Flora of Japan"; "Manual of the Trees of North America" (1905) ; and many reports. SARGENT, DUDLEY ALLEN, an American physical director, born at Bel- fast, Me., in 1849. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1875 and from the medical department of Yale in 1878. From 1879 he was director of the Hem- enway Gymnasium at Harvard. From 1881 to 1916 he was director of the Nor- mal School of Physical Training, Cam- bridge, Mass., and from the latter year was president of the Sargent School for Physical Education. He was the inventor of many pieces of modern gymnasium apparatus. He wrote "Health, Strength and Power" (1904). SARGENT, EPES, an American au- thor; born in Gloucester, Mass., Sept. 27, 1813. His works include: "Change Makes Change," a comedy; "The Priest- ess," a tragedy; "Wealth and Worth" (1840), a novel; "Peculiar: A Tale of the Great Transition" (1863) ; "Life of Henry Clay." "Songs of the Sea" and "A Life on the Ocean Wave" are the most popular of his verses. His "Cyclo- paedia of English and American Poetry" was published in 1883. He died in Bos- ton, Dec. 31, 1880. SARGENT, JOHN SINGER, an Amer- ican artist; born in Florence, Italy, in 1856; studied art under Carolus Duran; received a second-class medal at the Paris Salon in 1881 ; took a medal of honor at the Paris Exposition in 1889; and was elected an academician of the Royal Academy, England, in 1897, and of the National Academy of Design in New York in 1897. His works include the figure pieces: "Fishing for Oysters at Cancale"; "Neapolitan Children Bathing," and "El Jaleso"; the portraits: "Doctor Pozzi"; "Portrait of a Young Lady"; "Madam G."; "Henry Marquand"; and numerous sketches, ideal figures, etc., portraits of Theodore Roosevelt, and other eminent Americans. His mural decorations are notable, especially those in the Public Library of Boston. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. SARK, or SERCQ, one of the Channel Islands, situated about 6 miles from Guernsey. It is divided into Great Sark and Little Sark, the connection between these being a narrow neck of land called Coupee; length about 5, and breadth about 3 miles. The island is surrounded by almost inaccessible rocks, and the carriage roads are steep. Fishing is the chief employment; and the manufactures are principally stockings, gloves, etc. SARMATIA, a name given by the Ro- mans to all the country in Europe and Asia between the Vistula and the Cas- pian Sea. The people inhabiting this country were usually called Sauromatae by the Greeks, and Sarmatse by the Ro- mans. The Sarmatians began to threat- en the Roman empire in the reign of Nero (54-68). Since that time they figure promiscuously among the barba- rians who vexed the N. E. frontier of the Roman empire. They were finally subdued by the Goths, with whom, in process of time, they were amalgamated. SARMATIANS, a people of supposed Asiatic race, who in the time of the Ro- mans occupied the vast region between the Black, Baltic, and Caspian Seas. They were a nomadic race, whose women went to war like the men, and they were said by tradition to be descended from the Amazons by Scythian fathers. Sarmatia coincided in part with Scythia, but whether the people were of the same race is doubtful. SARONIC GULF (Sinus Saronicus), the ancient name of the Gulf of iEgina, on the E. coast of Greece. SAROS, an ancient Assyrian astro- nomical period, the origin and exact length of which are unknown, though they have been the subject of much dis- putation. By some authors the saros has been confounded with the Metonic cycle. SARPI, PAOLO (surnamed Servita), better known by his monastic appella- tion, Fra Paolo; an Italian historian; born in Venice Aug. 14, 1552, embraced the monastic life, and took the vows in the religious order of the Servites in 1565. Five years later the Duke of Man- tua made him his court theologian; but he was soon after summoned to be Pro- fessor of Philosophy in the Servite mon- astery at Venice, and there he remained all the rest of his life. For nine years, however (1579-1588), he was absent in Rome looking after affairs connected with the reform of the Servite order. In the dispute between the republic of Venice and Paul V. on the subject of clerical immunities Sarpi stepped for- ward as the valiant champion of the re- public and of freedom of thought. On the repeal (1607) of the edict of excom- munication launched against Venice, Sarpi was summoned to Rome to account for his conduct. He refused to obey, and
