Page:EB1922 - Volume 32.djvu/674

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SYDENHAM—SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM

An important episode in Swiss history is narrated by E. Gagli- ardi, Der Anteil der Schweizer an den italienischen Kriegen, 1494-1516 (vol. i., 1494-1509, 1919). Marie Louise Herkin's life of C. V. Bon- stetten, 1745-1832 (1920) is a contribution to Swiss literary history of the i8th century. W. Oechsli's Geschichte der Schweiz im loten Jahrhundert, from 1798 (vol. ii. appeared at Leipzig in 1913, the work will be continued by E. Gagliardi), and J. VViniger's life of Josef Zemp, 1834-1908 (1908), like E. Deriaz's Un Homme d'tat vaudois, Henri Druey, 1799-1855 (1920), and T. Weiss' life of Jacob Stampfli, 1820-1879 (1920), relate to modern Swiss history. In 1918 W. Oechsli published at Zurich a new edition of his Quellen- buch zur Schweizergeschichte.

In geology we have to note A. Heim, Geologic der Schweiz (appear- ing since 1919 in parts at Leipzig). In the domain of the fine arts vol. iii. of the Schweiz. Kiinstler-Lexikon appeared in 1913, as did an extensive supplement to the work. The special works by J. Scheuber, Die mittelalterlichen ChorstMe in der Schweiz (1910) and by E. A. Stuckelberg, Cicerone im Tessin (1918) are also very useful works in this department.

In ecclesiastical history we have the fine monograph, Angelo- montana (1914), and vol. ii. (vol. i. appeared in 1907) of I. G. Mayer's Geschichte des Bisthums Chur (1914), and vol. v. (1917) of E. Dou- mergue's Jean Calvin.

Another subject of great importance to Switzerland is treated of in H. A. Gurtner's Zur Verschuldung des schweiz. Hotelgewerbes (1918), written by a Swiss hotel-keeper's son.

The following works refer to the Swiss Alps Julien Gallet, Dans I'Alpe Ignores (1910); E. J. P. de la Harpe, Les Alpes Valaisannes and Les Alpes Bernoises (1911 and 1915 respectively) ; and H. Diibi, Die ersten 50 Jahre des Schweizer Alpenclub (1913, also in French).

Turning now to the several cantons the following works deserve mention :

BASLE: R.,'Wackernagel, Geschichte der Stadt Basel (vol. ii. 1916, vol. i. appeared in 1907); A. Heusler, Geschichte der Stadt Basel (vol. i., 1917).

GENEVA: L. Cramer, La Seigneurie de Geneve el la Maison de Savoie, de 1559 a 1605 (2 vols. 1912) ; H. Heyer, L'elise de Genev. 1535-1909 (1909); L. Blondel, Les Faubourgs de Geneve (1919; vol. iii. 1918) of the Recueil Genealogique Suisse; W. Oechsli, Les Cantons Suisses et Gcnbie 1477-1815 (1915); and E. Doumergue, La Geneve desGenevois (1914).

TICINO: Karl Meyer, Leventina und Blenio von Barbarossa bis Heinrich VII. (1911).

VALAIS: D. Imesch, Die Walliser Landrats-Abschiede seit 1500 (vol. i., 1500-19, 1916); and A. Buchi, Korrespondenzen und Akten zur Geschichte des Kardinals Matth. Schiner (vol. i., 1489-1515, 1920).

VAUD: B. van Muyden, Pages d'Histoire Lausannoise (1911), and Recueil de Genealogies Vaudoises (4 parts, 191220).

ZURICH: K. Dandliker, Geschichte der Stadt und des Kantons Zurich (3 vols., 1908-12). (VV. A. B. C.)


SYDENHAM, GEORGE SYDENHAM CLARKE, 1ST BARON (1848- ), British soldier and administrator, was born in Lincolnshire July 4 1848. He was educated at Haileybury and Wimbledon, and afterwards at the Royal Military Academy. In 1868 he entered the Royal Engineers, and in succeeding years served in various expeditions abroad, including the Sudan operations of 1885. The same year he returned to England, and was employed at the War Office until 1892, being at the same time secretary to the Colonial Defence Committee. He was also secretary to the Royal Commission on Navy and Army Administration. From 1894 to 1901 he was superintendent of the royal carriage factory at Woolwich. During all these years Sir George Clarke, who was created K.C.M.G. in 1893, had earned a great repu- tation, outside as well as inside his profession, as an authority on military questions, over and above his special subject of fortification. On his retirement from Woolwich, he was made a member of the important committee on War Office reorganization. In 1901 he was appointed governor of Victoria (Australia), and on his retirement in 1904 he became secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence. From 1907 to 1913 he was governor of Bombay. He had been created G.C.M.G. in 1905, and in 1913 was raised to the peerage. He subsequently took a vigorous interest in many public questions, becoming chairman of the Royal Commission on Contagious Diseases (1913-5), chairman of the Central Appeal Tribunal (1915-6), and president of the National Council for Combating Venereal Diseases. In addition to his classic work on Fortification (1890; 2nd ed. 1907), his publications include The Navy and the Nation (1897) and Imperial Defence ( 1 898), besides handbooks on military subjects.


SYKES, SIR MARK, 6TH BART. (i879-i9i 9 ),English traveller and politician, was born March 16 1879, the only child of Sir Tatton Sykes, 5th Bart., of Sledmeer, Yorks. He was educated at the Roman Catholic public school of Beaumont College and afterwards at the Ecole des Jesuites, Monaco, and Jesus College, Cambridge. He served in the South African War (1902), in 1904 became secretary to Mr. George Wyndham in Ireland, and in 1905 went to Constantinople as honorary attache to the British embassy, remaining there until 1907. Before this, however, he had begun a series of travels and explorations, especially in Turkey and the Near East. He published several works dealing with his various expeditions, among them being Through Five Turkish Provinces (1900); Dar-el-I slam (1903); and Five Man- sions of the House of Othman (1909). He also prepared maps of the north-western region of Mesopotamia and of the southern districts of Palestine, for which in 1906 he was thanked by the Army Council and Foreign Office. His knowledge of these regions proved invaluable during the World War. In 191 1 he was elected to Parliament for Central Hull as a Unionist, and in 1913 he succeeded his father as 6th Baronet. On the outbreak of war in 1914, Sir Mark Sykes raised a battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, but did not proceed with it to France. He was sent on important special missions to Russia, Mesopotamia and Syria, and published in 1915 The Caliphs' Last Heritage. He died suddenly in Paris Feb. 16 1919.


SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM, in physiology (see 26.287). On studying the effects of stimulation of the sympathetic nerv- ous system it appears that they are directed towards activat- ing the body for fight or flight. The dilatation of the pupil in- creases the perception of light; the acceleration and augmenta- tion of the heart-beat increases the blood supply; the constriction of the blood vessels in the visceral area raises the blood pressure, driving the blood from the digestive area, whose functions are simultaneously inhibited, into the skeletal and cardiac muscles, the lungs and the brain. The sweat glands are stimulated to cool the blood heated by increased muscular effort and the hairs are erected in many animals to render them more alarming. The " goose skin " experienced by man under emotional stress is similarly produced, though not now advantageous. Some emotional responses, like some bodily structures, are vestigial remains. The other division of the autonomic system, to which the name of parasympathetic has been given, serves the purpose of building up reserves and of fortifying the body against times of need and stress. Thus by contracting the pupil it shields the retina from excessive light; by slowing the rate of the heart it gives it longer periods for recuperation; it excites appetite and by promoting the assimilation and digestion of food it stores up energy. The sacral division of the parasympathetic is a mecha- nism /or emptying, thus leading to greater comfort. The sympa- thetic is, therefore, katabolic, converting potential energy into kinetic, and facilitating outward manifestations of that energy; while the parasympathetic is anabolic, directing energy inwards, where it is stored up. When these two are distributed to the same structure their action is always antagonistic.

In pain, fear, rage and any intense excitement, the sympathetic neurons are brought rapidly into play and the action of the cranial division of the parasympathetic is inhibited. Anabolism is in abeyance and katabolism goes on unchecked. This is comprehensible, since these katabolic activities are defensive in origin and aided the primitive animal in its struggle with or flight from its enemy.

Of late it has been realized that each of these divisions of the autonomic system cooperates with its appropriate group of endocrine glands. The sympathetic group consists of the adrenals, the thyroid and the pituitary each of which are accelerators of metabolism. The intimate relationship embryologically, structurally and functionally between the nervous and glandular elements is best illustrated by the adrenals. The medulla of the adrenals and the sympathetic ganglia originated from similar cells, preganglionic fibres end round both, and adrenalin, the secretion of the medullary portion, produces the same effect on any part as stimulation of the postganglionic fibres ; an interesting example of parallelism between a nervous and chemical mechanism. Just as the preganglionic fibre stimulates the secretion of adrenalin, so adrenalin increases the postganglionic responses.