Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/136

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128 SMYTH possession it ultimately remained, after being captured in 14'i2 by Tamerlane. Among its many calamities in modern times were tbe conflagration of 1841 and the earthquake of 1846. In July, 1853, Martin Koszta was de- livered here from the hands of the Austrians by Oapt. Ingraham. See Scherzer's La pro- vince de Smyrne (1875). SMITH, a S. W. county of Virginia, bounded 8. E. by the Iron mountain range and drained by the head streams of Holston river; area, about 500 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 8,898, of whom 1,244 were colored. The surface is an ele- vated valley between the Iron mountain range and Walker's mountain; the soil is very fer- tile. Limestone, gypsum, and salt are found. It is traversed by the Atlantic, Mississippi, and Ohio railroad. The chief productions in 1870 were 44,681 bushels of wheat, 96,829 of Indian corn, 66,323 of oats, 3,327 tons of hay, 1,575 Ibs. of tobacco, 10,514 of wool, 64,910 of but- ter, 26,820 of cheese, 3,113 of flax, and 9,897 of honey. There were 1,595 horses, 1,846 milch cows, 3,193 other cattle, 4,553 sheep, and 4,059 swine. Capital, Marion. SMYTH, Thomas, an American clergyman, born in Belfast, Ireland, June 14, 1808, died in Charleston, S. C., Aug. 20, 1873. He was educated in Belfast and London, and in 1830 entered the theological seminary at Princeton, N. J. From 1832 till his death he was pastor of the second Presbyterian church in Charles- ton, 8. 0. Among the numerous works of Dr. Smyth are: "Lectures on the Prelatical Doc- trine of Apostolic Succession " (Boston, 1841) ; " The Ecclesiastical Catechism " (1841) ; " Ec- clesiastical Republicanism" (1843); "Presby- tery and not Prelacy the Scriptural and Primi- tive Polity " (1843) ; " Calvin Defended " (Phil- adelphia, 1844) ; " The Rite of Confirmation" (1845); "The Name, Nature, and Functions of Ruling Elders" (1845); "The History, Character, and Results of the Westminster Assembly of Divines" (New York, 1847); " The Unity of the Human Races proved to be the Doctrine of Scripture, Reason, and Sci- ence" (1850); "Nature and Claims of Young Men's Christian Associations" (Philadelphia, 1857); "Faith the Principle of Missions" (1857); "The Well in the Valley" (1857); and " Obedience the Life of Missions" (1860). SMYTH. I. William Henry, a British naval officer, born in Westminster, Jan. 21, 1788, died near Aylesbury, Sept. 9, 1865. He en- tered the navy in 1805, and rendered impor- tant aid in the defence of Cadiz in 1810. He became lieutenant in 1813, and soon afterward was appointed to a command in the flotilla under Sir Robert Hall detailed for the defence of Sicily. By order of the lords of the ad- miralty he made an elaborate survey of Sicily and the adjacent islands, which occupied him for several years, and resulted in the publica- tion by the admiralty of an atlas of Sicily. As an uccoinp.-inimentto this, he published a "Me- moir descriptive of the Resources, Inhabitants SNAIL and Hydrography of Sicily and its Islands, interspersed with Antiquarian and other No- tices" (4to, 1824). He afterward completed the survey of the shores of the Adriatic, and was employed in 1823 and 1824 in a survey of the coasts of Sardinia, and published a " Sketch of the present State of the Island of Sardinia " (8vo, 1828). He attained the rank of post captain in February, 1824, and settled soon after at Bedford, where he built a small ob- servatory, and in 1844 published a " Cycle of Celestial Objects, for the use of Naval, Mili- tary, and Private Astronomers " (2 vols. 8vo). In 1853 he attained the rank of rear admiral, and in 1857 he was appointed hydrographer to the admiralty. His most valuable work is entitled " The Mediterranean, a Memoir, Physi- cal, Historical, and Nautical" (8vo, 1854), in which he gives in systematic and condensed form the results of his numerous surveys and observations on the physical geography of that sea. He also wrote "Sidereal Chromatics" (1864), and "The Sailor's Word Book " (1867). II. Charles Piazzl, son of the preceding, has held the post of astronomer royal for Scotland. In 1856 he transported a large collection of meteorological, magnetical, and astronomical instruments to the peak of Teneriffe, where he selected two stations, one 8,840, and the other 10,700 ft. above the sea, and obtained impor- tant results detailed in his " Teneriffe, an As- tronomer's Experiment " (London, 1858). He has since written "Three Cities in Russia" (1862) ; " Our Inheritance in the Great Pyra- mid " (1864; new ed., 1874) ; "Life and Work at the Great Pyramid" (1867) ; "On the An- tiquity of Intellectual Man, from a Practical and Astronomical Point of View" (1868) ; and "Equal Surface Projection for Maps of the World" (1871). He maintains that the pyra- mids are memorials of a system of weights and measures intended to be perpetual. SNAIL, the common name of the Tielicidce, a large family of gasteropod mollusks, terrestrial and air-breathing. The number known is now so large that the treatment of the subfamilies and genera would require a volume. Restrict- ing the name helicida to such as have a well developed external spiral shell, the snails may be characterized as animals breathing air by means of branchial vessels spread like a net- work over the internal walls of a cavity in the anterior part of the body, covered by the shell, and communicating with the atmosphere by a small valvular opening on the right side ; they have four retractile tentacles, the upper two the largest and having eyes at the apex ; there is a dentated horny jaw on the upper lip, which is opposed by the tongue; the gullet is wide, with large white salivary glands on its sides, and the liver is well developed ; the whole body is very glutinous ; the locomotion is slow, by means of the ventral foot; they are hermaphrodite, with reciprocal impregna- tion. The shells are always external, vary much in form, and contain the entire animal ;