S E S
SET
like milk, fwimming on the coagulum. This had no fmell at firft ; but being kept for obfervation, after fix days it contracted a fmell like that of rotten eggs ; and after Hand- ing three weeks more, it neither altered its confiftence nor fmell.
If this liquor was chyle, then is chyle a fubftance very dif- ferent from milk, milk being apt to turn fower, and become thick by keeping, and never contracting the fmell of rotten eggs, as this liquor did. Whether it be not chyle turned putrid, and brought near to purulency by a long circulation in the blood veflels, without being converted into blood, through fome defect in the fanguification, is a queftion not cafily decided. Five days after this being blooded again, the blood was found of the common kind, the ferum being a thin pellucid water as ufual. Philofoph. Tranf. N° 442. p. 290. SERUM aluminofum, alum-whey, a form of medicine prefcribed in the late London Pharmacopceia, made of a pint of milk boiled to whey with a quarter of an ounce of alum. Pern- tartan's Lond. Difp. p. 255, SERWOY, in natural hiftory, a name given by Theodore de Bry, and others, to the animal called by us the opojfum, and by the natives of Brafil the carigueya, Phil. 1'ranf. N° 239. p. 107. See Opossum. SESAMION, a word uled by the antients to exprefs a prepa- ration of the fefamum, or oily grain. It was a cake made of fefamum, honey, and oil. SESAMOIDE bones {Cyd.) — The fefamoide bones are very fmall, and have their name from the feed of the fefamum, or oily grain, to which they are fuppofed to bear fome re- femblance. There are feveral of them found, both in the joints of the toes and fingers. They are for the moft part very fmall, and affixed chiefly to ligaments, and only two of them are large enough to be commonly preferved in fce- letons : thefe referable a large flat oval pearl, and are hol- lowed on one fide.
They are of about the third of an inch in length, and are half as broad as long. They are conneited very near each other, by a fmall fhort ligament, to the bafis of the firft phalanx of the great toe, fo as to Hide on each fide of the middle eminence of the double pulley, in the firft metatarfal bone, like two fmall patellae. Though thefe are generally fattened in fceletons to the firft bone of the metatarfus, they neverthelefs belong only to the firft phalanx of the great toe, as the patella belongs not to the os femoris, but to the tibia. Wirijlwfs Anatomy, p. 104. Sesamoides, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is wholly the fame in ihape with that of the refeda, but the fruit is very different in the different fpecies : in fome it confifts of fe- veral horns or capfules, each containing one ked of a kid- ney-like fhape ; and in others it is multicapfular, or ftel- latcd.
The fpecies of fejamoides, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, arc thefe. 1. The white-flowered fejamoides with hoary leaves. 2. The thick-leaved fefametdes with purplifli green flowers. 3. The fejamoides with ftellated fruit, called by many the toad-flax- leaved refeda. -Town. In ft. p. 424. SESAMUM, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the
myagrum, or gold of pleafure. Folk. Flor. Norimb. 312. SESELI, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the cha rafters of which, according to Linnxus, are thefe. Th< general umbel is uncertain in figure ; the partial ones are very fhort, multiple, and almoft round. There is no general involucrum, and the partial ones are compofed of feveral leaves, of the length of the umbellule, narrow, and pointed. The perianthium is fcarce obfervable. The general corolla is nearly uniform ; and the fingle flowers are compofed of five inflexo-cordated, and nearly equal petals. The ftamina are five tubulated filaments. The anthers are fimple. The germen of the piftil ftands under the receptacle. The ftyles are two, and reflex. The ftigmata are obtufe. The fruit is ovated, fmall, ftriated, and feparable into two parts. The feeds are two in number, oval, convex on one fide, and plane on the other. . Tournefort has referred the fpecies of fefeli to the genus of fennel, feeniculum, from which, however, they greatly dif- fer, in regard to their involucra. Lmnai Gen. Plant, p. 120. See Foeniculum. Seseli feed, in the materia medica, the name of the feed of" a plant, called alfo by fome Hbanetis, and growing three or four feet high, with leaves like fennel, but of a paler green. It is a native of warm climates. The feed ought to be chofen moderately large, of a longifh Ihape, heavy, clean, and of a greenifh colour, frefh, and of a grateful fmell. It affords, by diftillation, a very large quantity of an eflentiai oil, and is hot and dry. It incides, opens, and difcufles and is cephalic, neurotic, pectoral, and nephritic. It 15 good againft epilepfies, apoplexies, vertigos, and all difor- ders of the head and nerves. Lemery's Dicl. of Drugs. The feeds of the fefeli cretUum are diuretic, uterine, and good in all diforders of the breaft and lungs. They are given in fuppreffions of urine, and of the menfes, and in all kinds of flatulencies - t and arc, among the German phyfici- 2
ans, a common ingredient in medicines, intended to pro- mote expectoration.
The feed of the french Hartwort, or fefeli rnajftlienfe, is efteemed of great virtue in difeafes of the head and nerves in cortvulfions and epilepfies, and in weaknefles of the fight. It is alfo given in electuaries, intended againft all diforders of the breaft and lungs, in coughs, catarrhs, and afthmas and in obflructions of the liver. Some have recommended it fingly, as a medicine of great efficacy againft obflructions of the menfes ; and Schroder tells us, that it has the credit of being an antidote to the poifon of hemlock. The common hartwort is poflefled of the fame fort of vir- tues with the other two, but its feed is more warm and acrid than that of either of them. It is efteemed a very efficacious remedy in obflructions of the menfes, and in all diforders arifing from indigeilion, crudities, and flatulencies. SESERINUS, in zoology, a name given by Rondeletius, and fome other authors, to a broad and fhort fea fifh, feem- ing the fame with the lampuga of Italian fifhermen; and defcribed by authors in general, and by this very author in another place, under the name of Jlromateus. JVillughby Hift. Pifc. p. 137. See Stromateus. SESQUITERTIONAL proportion. When any number or quantity contains another once and one third, they are fef~ quitertional proportionals. SESSILE roots, among botanifts, fuch tuberous roots as adhere
to the bafe of the ftalk. See Root. Sessile leaf, among botanifts. See Leaf. SETS, a term ufed by the farmers to exprefs the youno- plants of the white thorn, and other fhrubs, which they ufe to raife their quick, or quicker hedges. The white thorn is the belt, of all trees, for this purpofe, and under proper regulations, its fets feldom fail of anfwer- ing the farmers utmoft expectations.
The firft thing to be confidered by the perfon, who is about to plant a quick-_/ir hedge, is what nature the land is of where it is to ftand, as whether it be clay, fand, or gravel. It is always proper to take the fets from a worfe land, than that they are to be planted on, otherwife they will never grow well. The fets are about the thicknefs of a man's thumb, and cut within four or five inches of the ground. If the quick is intended only for a hedge, without a bank or ditch, let the/frr be planted almoft perpendicular in two rows, at about twelve inches difiance from each other ; and if there is to be a ditch and a bank, that is to be firft pro- vided. The ground is to be marked out with a line, and a ditch dug three feet wide at the top, one foot wide at the bottom, and two feet deep. When the ditch is digging, on that fide where the quick is to ftand, let the turf be laid evenly on the ground, with the grafl'y fide downwards : upon this fome fine mould is to be laid, to bed the quick-/rfi in and they are to be laid upon itwith their ends enclinino- up- wards, and at about twelve inclus aftmder. They mufl be carefully gathered, and fuch as are ftrait, fmoorh, and well rooted, are only to be chofen. At every thirty feet thers fhould be planted with the fets a young oak, afli, or fome other fuch tree, to grow up along with the hedge. When a compleat row of the fets is thus laid, cover them with a layer of fine mould, and lay over that another layer of the turf j add upon this a third layer of mould, fo deep, that its furface may be a foot above the row of fets: on this bed place another row of the like fets at the fame diftances, but placed between the others ; cover this as the i ther, and then make up the bank with the earth dug out of the bottom of the ditch, and on its top fet the dry, or dead hedge : this will fhade the under plantation, and will be a defence till the fets are grown up into a live hedge. The flakes for the dead hedge are to be driven into the bank fo low, as to reach the firm ground, and are to be placed at two feet and a half difiance from one another. Oak flakes are the beft for this purpofe, and fallow and black thorn are efteem- ed next to thefe. The fmall bufhes cut from them mufl be laid below, but not too thick, that they may fhade the young plantation without fmothering it, and defend its young ffioots from the biting of cattle : the long bufhes are to be laid at top to bind in the flakes, by interweaving them. To add a farther flrength to the hedge it may be edder- ed, as the farmers call it : this is binding the tops of the flakes with fome fmall long poles, or flicks, on each fide. When this is all done, the flakes fhould be new drove a little, becaufe the making the hedge, and the eddering it, are apt to loofen them a little.
The young plants mufl be conflantly weeded, and great care mufl be taken to preferve them from the bitings of cattle, efpecially of fheep. If they have been cropped, or are not found to grow well, it is a good cuftom among the farmers to cut them down to the ground, or within an inch of it, for after this they ufually fend out new roots, and flioot very vigoroufly. Mortimer's Hufbandry. ET4o/ii, in a fhip. See Bolts.
ETACEUS vermis, in natural hiftory, a name given by Dr. Lifter to that long and flendcr water worm, which to much refembles a horfe-hair, that it has been fuppofed by the vulgar to be an animated hair of that creature.
Thefe
