he was ejected from his living for nonconformity. He afterwards became pastor of a dissenting congregation in London, where he died in 1708. He published some sermons, and edited Baxter's History of his Life and Times.—F.
* SYME, James, Regius professor of clinical surgery in the university of Edinburgh, and one of the most distinguished of modern surgeons, was born at the close of the last century. A Scotsman, he obtained his professional education in the surgical school of Edinburgh, where he proved himself the most skilful and talented of the alumni of the greatest operating surgeon of the age—Robert Liston. In 1821 Mr. Syme became a member of the College of Surgeons of England, and in 1823 a fellow of the College in Edinburgh. His great abilities soon made themselves an appropriate field. He commenced lecturing on surgery, and became surgeon to a dispensary for the treatment of surgical diseases then established in George Street, Edinburgh. In 1835 Mr. Liston accepted the chair of clinical surgery at University college, London, and since that time Syme has reigned facile princeps amongst the surgeons of the north. As regius professor in the university, and surgeon to the royal infirmary, his clinical teaching, his extraordinary ability in diagnosis, and his skill as an operator, second only to that of Liston, have rendered him one of the great lights of the university, attracting students from all parts of the empire. On Liston's death, which took place in 1847, Mr. Syme was tempted by the council of University college, London, to leave Edinburgh and accept the professorship in that institution. Before his departure the profession in Scotland expressed their high sense of his merits by inviting him to a public festival held in his honour. But he did not remain long in London; he missed the associations which had been endeared by his early and successful professional labours, and the next session saw him reinstated in the chair in his alma mater he had shortly before vacated. Mr. Syme's reputation as an operator is only commensurate with his high standing as a surgical writer. Besides numerous memoirs in the Medical and Surgical Journal, the Medico-chirurgical Transactions, and the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he is the author of a work on the principles of surgery, which has passed through several editions; of separate treatises on diseases of the rectum, and on stricture of the urethra, which have met with similar success; of a treatise on "Excision of Diseased Joints," Edin., 1831; of "Contributions to the Pathology and Practice of Surgery," 8vo, Edin., 1848; and of "Observations in Clinical Surgery," Edin., 1861. Mr. Syme has had the principal merit of introducing the operation of excision of the elbow-joint into Great Britain. It had been performed abroad, and once in 1823 by Sir Philip Crampton, before Mr. Syme's first operation, which took place in 1825. He afterwards performed the same excision in thirteen other cases, with such success as to prove that the operation was not only practicable, but of the highest value. Many other surgical proceedings have originated with, or been improved by Mr. Syme. Amongst these are an operation for the relief of impermeable stricture by perineal section, the operation for cleft palate, the operation for the permanent cure of hernia, various amputations, &c. He has also taken a prominent part in medical politics. He is the author of two letters to Lord Palmerston on the subject of medical reform; and he has borne a considerable share in the deliberations of the General Medical Council, of which he is a member. Mr. Syme was chosen in 1842 an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, England; he is a fellow of the Royal Medico-chirurgical Society, and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.—F. C. W.
SYMINGTON, William, a Scottish engineer, the maker of the first practical steam-boat, was born in the course of the latter half of the eighteenth century, and died some time after the year 1835. He first turned his attention to steam navigation on being employed by Miller of Dalswinton to supply, at the suggestion of James Taylor, a steam-engine to drive the paddle-wheels of Miller's experimental boat. In Symington's engine, rotatory motion was produced by means of ratchet wheels—a defective method, which led to the failure of this as well as of many other experiments. In 1801 Symington was employed by Thomas, Lord Dundas, governor of the Forth and Clyde Canal Company, to make experiments in steam navigation on that canal. In the course of the same year he contrived the adaptation of Watt's rotative steam-engine to drive a paddle-wheel by means of a crank, and he patented that invention in October, 1801; in March, 1802, it was put in practice, with complete success, in a vessel called the Charlotte Dundas; and this was the first practical steam-boat, and the parent of all steam vessels propelled by paddle-wheels. The duke of Bridgewater, having heard of the experiments and seen a model of the vessel, at once ordered eight boats on the same plan; but before Symington could execute the order the duke died, and about the same time the Forth and Clyde Canal Company abandoned the use of steam power through fear of injury to the banks, so that Symington never reaped any profit from his invention. Many years afterwards he received a trifling gratuity from the government in acknowledgment of his services; and a small sum was subscribed for him by steam-boat owners at the instance of the eminent engineer James Walker.—(Woodcroft's Sketch of the Origin and Progress of Steam Navigation; Abridgments of the Specifications relating to Marine Propulsion.— See also in this dictionary, Fulton, Robert; Jouffroy; Miller, Patrick; Taylor, James.)—W. J. M. R.
SYMMACHUS, the Samaritan, an Ebionite christian of the second century. He made a free version of the Old Testament into Greek, in which the sense is given in clear and intelligible, though not elegant language. Jerome says that there was a second edition of it. A few fragments, all that remain, were printed by Montfaucon, with those of Aquila and Theodotion, at Paris, in 1713, 2 vols. folio.—S. D.
SYMMACHUS, Quintus Aurelius, a distinguished Roman orator, belonged to the last half of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth. He was very carefully educated in Gaul, which had the most famous seminaries of learning at that time, and imbibed a strong love of literature. Symmachus filled some of the highest offices in the state, was quæstor and prætor, proconsul of Africa, and a member of the pontifical college. He was one of the last defenders of heathenism, endeavouring in vain to breathe life and vigour into the literature of a religion which was fast expiring. The senate appointed him to expostulate with Gratian for removing the altar of Victory from the hall, for which the emperor banished him to the distance of a hundred miles from Rome. Being afterwards prefect of the city, he wrote to Valentinian about the restoration of the pagan deities, 384. In 391 he was consul. The time of his death, which was after 404, is unknown. Symmachus was a man of great abilities, upright, honest, firm, mild. He lived in difficult times, and amid general corruption preserved the character of a high-minded statesman. His extant works consist of letters and fragments of speeches. The letters, divided into ten books, were published by his son, after the father's death. The style is good, but laboured, after the model of Pliny. Fragments of nine orations were discovered by Mai in palimpsests at Milan and Rome, and are contained in Scriptorum Veterum nova Collectio, &c., vol. i., 1825.—(See Morin's Etudes sur la vie et sur les ecrits de S., Paris, 1847.)—S. D.
SYMMONS, Charles, D.D., the biographer of Milton, and a most worthy clergyman of the Church of England, was born in 1749, being the son of John Symmons, M.P. for Cardigan. He was educated first at Westminster; then at Glasgow university, where he contracted a friendship with the celebrated Mr. Windham; and finally at Clare hall, Cambridge, where he took the degree of B.D. in 1776. Two years afterwards he was presented to the rectory of Narberth, and he became a zealous preacher. In 1794 he incurred no small amount of odium among persons in authority, by a sermon preached before the university of Cambridge, in which he expressed whig sentiments. His friend Windham had consequently some difficulty in securing his presentation to the living of Lampeter. Dr. Symmons was fortunate in his children, all of whom showed considerable talents for literature. In conjunction with his daughter Caroline, of whom Archdeacon Wrangham wrote a beautiful memoir, he published a volume of poems in 1813. His life of Milton is prefixed to the edition of that author's prose works, published in 1806.—(See Watt's Bibl., and Gent. Mag., xcvi., 565.)—R. H.
SYMONDS, Sir William, Rear-admiral, a distinguished naval architect and surveyor of the navy, from 1832 to 1847, was born 24th September, 1782. He was the third son of Captain Thomas Symonds, R.N., and as soon as he had completed his twelfth year he was embarked as a midshipman on board the flag-ship, London, commanded by Captain Halsted. Throughout the long war with France he served actively in various cruisers, participating in many sharp engagements with the enemy.
