SPIEGEL. 445 SPINACH. (1841) and the Ancedota Palica (1845) did much for the knowledge of southern Buddhism. They were quickly followed by his researches on Zoroastrianism and the Avesta. The edition of the greater part of the extant Avesta, together with the Pahlavi translation (1853-58), was fol- lowed by a German version (1852-03), and sup- plemented by a commentary (1865-09). He published a' number of Persian works, as well as grammars of the Old Persian and Old Bactrian* languages. Then came the valuable linguistic and arclueological works. Die altiJeisisclim Kcil- iiiscliriften (1862). Eran (18U3), UrOnische Al- tertumsli'unde (1871-78), ^'Cl■f|^eicllCndc Grain- m'alik der alterSnischen Ffprachen (1SS2). and Die arische Periode und ihre Zusliiiide (1887). Jlention should be made of a Chrestoinathia Persica (1845), of the Granunatik der Parsi- spraclie (1851). and of the liinleitun:; in die traditionellen Schriften der Parsen (1S50-G0). SPIELHAGEIi, spel'ha-gen, Friedrich (1829 — ). A German novelist, born at Jlagde- burg, and educated at Berlin, Bonn, and Greifs- wald. He taught for a while at Leipzig, and in 1859 became editor of the Zeitung fiir Nord- deutsehland, in Hanover. Thence he moved in 1802 to Berlin, and edited (1878-84) Wester- mann's Illustrirte Monatschefte. Spielhagen be- gan novel-writing w-ith Problemalische Xatiiren (1860), and then for a while dealt with social problems, arising from the irrepressible conflict between the stolid landed nobility and the intel- ligence of the nation. In several books (Diirch Xacht zum Lioht, 1861 ; Die von Hohenstein, 1803; III Reih und Glied, 1860; Hammer wnd Amboss, 1869) he treated the subject with an aggressive optimism that won him a popularity which he afterwards maintained by sensational novels of a lower type. Of these Sturmfiut (1877), Der neue Pharao (1899), and Freige- boreiii 1900)aresufficientexemplars. Excellent are his critical Beitmge zur Theorie und Technik des Romans (1883). His own ideal for the novel is to present an artistically composed picture of the times, and for this he makes constant hardly veiled allusions to persons of contemporary prominence, so that his novels lose with time something of their significance and actuality. As a translator Spielhagen rendered into German Curtis's Howadji, Emerson's English Traits, a selection of American poems (1859; 2d ed. 1865), and Roscoe's Lorenzo de' Medici. He also trans- lated from the French minor works of Michelet, L'amour, La feinme, La mer. His collected novels appeared in 22 vols, in 1895. Consult his autobiographical Finder und Erfinder (1890), and Karpeles, Friedrieh Spielhagen (Leipzig, 1889). SPIELMANN, spel'man, M.rion H. (1858 — ) . An English art critic and author. He was born in London and studied at LTniversity Col- lege, London, with a view to becoming an en- gineer. He soon turned to literature, beginning with articles on art for the Pall Mall Gazette (1883). Afterwards he became art critic of the Daily Graphic, art editor of Black and White, and (1887) editor of the Magazine of Art. Among his publications are the Eistori/ of Punch (1895), exceedingly well done; Millais and His Works (1898); The Unidentified Conirihutions of Thackeray to Punch (1899) ; John Ruskin (1900); Notes ore the Wallace Collection in Hertford House (1900); and British Sculpture and Sculptms of To-Day (1902). SPIGELIA (Neo-Lat., named in honor of Adrian van der Spiegel, a Belgian physician and professor of anatomy at Padua in the seventeenth century). A genus of plants of the natural order Loganiaceae. Spigelia marihindica, often called worm grass and Carolina pinkroot, a native of the Southern United States, occurring from New Jersey to Wisconsin, and west to Texas, is a perennial plant with a simple quadrangular stem. The root has been employed in the United States as a vermifuge, as has also Spigelia aiitlielinia, a tropical American annual with spike-like ra- cemes of purplish flowers. SPIKE. A kind of inflorescence (q.v.). SPIKENARD (OF. spiquenard, from Lat. spica nardi, spike of nard, from spica, spike, point, head or tuft of a plant, and nardi, gen, sg. of 7iardus, Gk. vdpSo!, nard. from Pers. nard, from Skt. nalada, Indian spikenard), or N.rd. A costly perfume of India highly prized by the ancients and used both in baths and at feasts. The 'ointment of spikenard' (John xii. 3) was probably an oil or fat impregnated with the perfume. The plant which produces it has been ascertained to be the Nardostachys jatamansi, a native of the mountains of Northern India. The root, which is from three to twelve inches long, sends up many stems, with little spikes of purple flowers, which have four stamens. Andropogon nardus yields an oil which is sometimes called oil of spikenard; and in the United States Ara- lia racemosa, a tall herb with large perennial spicy aromatic roots, is known as spikenard. See Abat.ta. SPINA BIFIDA (Lat., cleft spine). A con- genital hernia of the membranes of the spinal cord through a fissure in the wall of the bony canal. A tumor is thus formed, which is nearly round, varying in size from that of an egg to that of an adult head, lying in the middle line of the back, fluctuating, and adhering to the adjacent vertebrse either directly or by a pedicle. The sac may contain only the spinal membranes (men- ingocele) or a part of the cord with the mem- branes (meningo-myelocele) , or lastly the spinal cord so distended by the expansion of the cen- tral canal as to form a neural lining to the sac. The usual termination of the condition is death. As the size of the tumor increases, fatal con- vulsions ensue; or the skin investing the tumor may ulcerate, and suff'ocation follow. Occasional cases are, however, recorded in w-hich patients with this aff'eetion have survived till middle life. Active surgical treatment usually hastens death, and should only be used in the most urgent cir- cumstances. Moderate support by means of a hollow truss, or a well-padded concave shield, may tend to keep the disease stationary; and any interference beyond this is, in the great majority of cases, unadvisable. SPINACH, or SPINA GE (OF. spinache, espinache, espinage, espinacc. from ML. spinacia, spinncium, spinach, from Lat. spina, thorn, spine, so called because of the prickly fruit), Spinacia. A genus of herbs of the natural order Chenopo- diaceae; probably natives of Asia. Common spinach, or garden spinach {Spinacia olcracea) ,
