sheep. They are generally sold into England, but sometimes into the Highlands, in March, where they are kept during summer; and, after being improved by the mountain grass, are returned into the Lowlands in the beginning of winter. This county, though not very populous at present, was once the nurse of heroes, who were justly accounted the bulwark of their native soil, being ever ready to brave danger and death in its defence. Of this we have a memorable proof in the pathetic lamentations of their wives and daughters for the disaster of the field of Floddon, 'where their brave foresters were a' wed away.' The rivers Etterick and Yarrow unite a little above the town of Selkirk, and terminate in the Tweed. For five miles above its junction with Etterick, the Tweed is still adorned with woods, and leads the pleased imagination to contemplate what this country must have been in former times. The Yarrow, for about five miles above its junction with the Etterick, exhibits nature in a bold and striking aspect. Its native woods still remain, through which the stream has cut its turbid course, deeply engulphed amidst rugged rocks. Here in a flood stood the descriptive Thomson when he saw it

Work and boil, and foam and thunder through.

Upon a peninsula, cut out by the surrounding stream, in the middle of this fantastically wild scene of grandeur and beauty, stands the castle

of Newark.

SELL, v. a. & v. n. } sela.

Sax. rýllan; Island. To give for a price; the word correlative to buy; to vend:

SEL'LER, n. s.

to have traffic: a seller is a vender. The Midianites sold him into Egypt, unto Potiphar.

Let us sell him to the Ishmaelites.

Genesis.

All the inns and public houses are obliged to furnish themselves with corn, which is sold out at a much dearer rate than 'tis bought up.

Id.

Addison on Italy. The name of the agent, or the seller, notary, and witnesses, are in both instruments. You have made an order that ale should be sold for three halfpence a quart. Swift.

SELLIUS (Godfrey), F. R. S., a learned historian and naturalist, born at Dantzic. He resided chiefly in France. He wrote 1. A Voyage to Hudson's Bay; 2. A Dictionary of Monograms; 3. The Natural History of Ireland; 4. History of the Ancient Revolutions of the Globe. He died in France in 1767..

SELTZER WATER, a mineral water which springs up at Lower Seltzer, is very useful medicinally. It contains, according to some, a very small portion of calcareous earth, of a native mineral alkali, and an acid; but of these the

quantity is too small to attribute any medicinal virtues to; but it contains also nearly one-seventh of its bulk of fixed air, which is more than is found in any other mineral water, and to this it owes its principal virtues. Others have said that it is of the same nature with Pyrmont water (see MINERAL WATERS), and contains a subtile aqueous fluid, a volatile iron, and a predominant alkali, all joined together into one brisk spirituous water. The consequence of these different opinions respecting its constituent parts is that different methods have been recommended for imitating it.

From the experiments of Dr. Brocklesby on Seltzer water we learn that, upon dropping twelve drops of very highly colored syrup of violets into a wine-glass of it, the syrup seemed first to manifest a purple hue, but, upon their intimate union, the whole changed into a beautiful green: that the same quantity of oil of tartar per deliquium dropped into a glass of sparkling, fresh, clear water, quickly turned the whole milky, and, after standing, a fine pearl-colored powder fell to the sides and bottom of the glass; on adding an equal number of drops of pure dephlegmated spirit of vitriol to a glass of this water, a light cloud was seen suspended towards the middle of all parts of the water, and the sparkling might the glass, and numerous air-bubbles rose from be renewed by adding one or more drops of the acid, and shaking the glass; and the like ebullition was more readily produced by a solution of sugar and Rhenish wine, or vinegar with the same and the same appearances were exhibited

by dropping any vegetable or mineral acids into acids are mixed together: a volatile caustic althis water, as are observed when alkalies and kali, in half an hour after it had been dropped into this water, produced at first a cloud and afterwards a precipitation. Lixivium saponarium so far decomposed a glass of Seltzer water, that a cloud instantly appeared in the middle of it, and the air-bubbles, emerging from the lower part of it, were greedily absorbed by the caustic alkali, which is known to imbibe fixed air, whenever it comes into contact with it. This water, says Dr. Brocklesby, poured into a glass, separates more air-bubbles than any other water which he had tried, and continues longer to do so in the open air; but its sparkling may be renewed by adding any sub-acid vegetable, and a little sugar, as sharp cyder and Rhenish wine and sugar; but he adds that the best Seltzer water here will not perfectly curdle milk, nor lather with soap, and that with powder of gall-nuts no farther change of color appeared than in pure water. By evaporating twenty-four ounces of the best Seltzer water, he obtained thirty-six grains of a saline residuum; and the greatest quantity he could ever get from a pint, wine measure, was less than thirty grains. Ten drops of strong spirits of vitriol, poured on as many grains of salt of Seltzer water, caused great and instant ebullition, and suffocating steam, which tinged blackish a silver spoon held in them, and gave to its polished surface a bitter taste.

Having dissolved sixty-six grains of pure white salt, obtained from this water, in distilled water, and filtrated it, he thereby obtained seven

grains of a calcareous earth, perfectly soluble in all weak acids; but by several different modes of trial he was led to conclude that this water contains no ferruginous principle.

Finding that the salts and earths contained in Seltzer water are too inconsiderable, both in quantity and quality, to promise any very material medicinal effects, he proceeded to investigate what might be ascribed to the great quantity of fixed air which this water constantly discharges, in a heat not exceeding that of the human body; and the result was, that the factitious air, yielded by a bottle full of water, containing exactly fourteen ounces seven drachms, in a heat never exceeding 116° by Fahrenheit's scale, amounted to a quantity which occupied a space that required two ounces two and a half drachms of water to fill it; or, allowing 265 grains of common water for a cubic inch, the whole water amounted to twenty-seven cubic inches, and that which would fill the space occupied by the air four ounces and one-fifth; and so large a quantity of interstitial air, he says, was generated in a heat not incompatible with life in any part of the world, as the fever heats in all climates testify, and less than the heat which is often experienced without instantaneous prejudice, in some tropical climates. However, this generated air soon began to be re-absorbed into the body of the water, and, in about eight hours, the space occupied by the remaining air did not exceed one-fifth of what it had formerly done. From another experiment with the salt of Seltzer water, he found that this seemed to have let go much the greatest part of its fixed air, and probably thereby lost most of the virtues inherent in the pure fresh water itself.

From such experiments Dr. Brocklesby infers that Seltzer mineral water contains, besides the mere elementary water, a very small quantity of calcareous earth, and a much greater portion of a native mineral alkali, together with some acid retained a while within the water, but which either evaporates into the open air, or else is soon combined with the mineral alkali: and he thinks it probable that the active virtues of this water depend more on this elastic matter, or fixed air, which it contains in such uncommon abundance beyond other mineral waters, than in any combination of its saline and earthy contents, which are found in such small quantities as to be incapable of any material service, though this water is known to be exceedingly beneficial. This account of the analysis of Seltzer water is closed with the history of some medical cases, in which the use of this water completed a cure, after a great variety of other remedies had proved insufficient.

The operation of this water, according to Hoffman, is chiefly by urine, for it has no purgative virtues. It corrects acidities, renders the blood and juices more fluid, and promotes a brisk and free circulation; and, therefore, it is good in obstructions of the glands, and against gross and viscid humors. It is of great use in the gravel and stone, and other disorders of the kidneys and bladder. It is also excellent in gouty and rheumatic complaints, especially when mixed with milk, or improved by the addition of Rhenish wine and a little sugar. It is drunk with great success in scorbutic, cutaneous, and

putrid disorders. It relieves the heart-burn, and is an excellent stomachic. On account of its diuretic quality, it is serviceable in dropsical complaints: and, mixed with asses' milk, it is much recommended in consumptive cases, and in disorders of the lungs; with or without milk, it is in great esteem in nervous disorders, and also in hypochondriacal and hysteric complaints, and in obstructions of the menses, accompanying the use of it with proper exercise. It is also administered with success in purging and fluxes arising from acidity in the bowels; and, it is said, if drunk by nurses, to render their milk more wholesome and nourishing, and to prevent it from turning sour on the stomachs of children. See London Med. Observ. vol. iv. p. 7, &c., and our own article MINERAL WATERS.

According to the former analysis, artificial Seltzer water may be prepared by adding one scruple of magnesia alba, six scruples of fossil alkali, and four scruples of common salt, to each gallon of water, and saturating the water with fixed air or carbonic acid. According to the latter it may be imitated by adding to a quart of the purest and lightest water thirty drops of a strong solution of iron made in spirit of salt, a drachm of oil of tartar per deliquium, and thirty drops of spirit of vitriol, or a little more or less as is found necessary, not to let the alkali of the oil of tartar prevail too strongly, though it must prevail a little. If the proportions be carefully observed, and the whole of these ingredients shaken briskly together, the artificial Seltzer or Pyrmont water thus made will strongly resemble the natural, and have the same good effect in medicine. But, as fixed air is the only efficacious medicinal part of the composition of Seltzer water, the best method of imitating it is by impregnating common water with that acid by a process for which we are indebted to Dr. Priestley. In 1767, having placed shallow vessels of water within the region of fixed air, on the surface of the fermenting vessels of a brewery, and left them all night in that situation, he found that the water had acquired a very sensible and pleasant impregnation. He proceeded to accelerate the impregnation by pouring the water from one vessel into another, while they were both held within the sphere of the fixed air. The method of effecting this by air dislodged from chalk and other calcareous substances did not occur to him till 1772, when he published his directions for this purpose, together with a drawing of the necessary apparatus, which he had before communicated to the board of admiralty. That apparatus afterwards gave way to another, invented by Dr. Nooth.

Dr. Withering of Birmingham after this contrived a new apparatus for impregnating water with fixed air, which, he says, is preferable to that in common use, because it can be made at less expense, and is more easily prepared; because the whole quantity of fixable air produced is converted to use without any waste of the vitriolic acid; because it impregnates three times the quantity of water at one time, more completely, and with less trouble; and the impregnated water will always retain its virtue, if the joints and cocks of the machine are perfectly

Make loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the salvage in the coupling. Ex. xxvi. 4.

SEMAYLA, a gold mine of Bambouk, in Central Africa. It is situated in a hillock about 200 feet high, and 5000 in circumference. The gold is contained in a kind of reddish sandstone, extremely hard, mixed with a species of calculous emery, and very hard red marble. At the depth of about thirty feet, the miners find a solid stratum of red marble, richly impregnated with gold, upon which their skill does not enable them to make any impression. The difficulties in working cause the mine of Semayla, though the richest in Bambouk, to be considered only of secondary value.

SEM'BLE, v. n. Fr. sembier; Lat. SEM BLABLE, adj. simulo. To repreSEM BLABLY, adv. sent; make a likeSEMBLANCE, N. S. ness: semblable is, SEM BLANT, adj. & n. s. | like, the adverb corSEM BLATIVE, adj. responding: semblance is, likeness; similitude: semblant, resembling; show; figure: semblative, suitable; fit; resembling.

Her purpose was not such as she did feign,
Ne yet her person such as it was seen;
But under simple show, and semblant plain,
Lurks false Duessa, secretly unseen.

Faerie Queene.

Full lively is the semblant, though the substance Spenser.

Be

dead.

you the soldier, for you likest are, For manly semblance, and for skill in war. Then be abhorred

All feasts, societies, and throngs of men! His semblable, yea himself, Timon disdains.

ld.

Shakspeare. A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt; Semblably furnished like the king himself.

Id. Henry IV. Solicit Henry with her wondrous praise : Bethink thee on her virtues that surmount Her natural graces, that extinguish art: Repeat their semblance often.

Diana's lip

Shakspeare.

It is not his meaning that we put on the outward face and semblance of virtue, only to conceal and disguise our vice. Rogers.

SEMECARPUS, in botany, a genus of the trigynia order, belonging to the pentandria class of plants: COR. quinquepetalous; the drupa is heart-shaped, cellulous, and monospermous. There is but one species.

SEMELE, in mythology, the daughter of Cadmus by Hermione, the daughter of Mars and Venus. She was beloved by Jupiter, and had received his visits. Juno, becoming jealous, visited her in the form of her nurse Beroe, and advised her to ask Jupiter next time he should visit her to honor her by coming in all his glory, as he visited Juno. Semele, having obtained his promise of whatever she should ask, confirmed by Styx, made her request. The god of thunder was thunder-struck; but being bound by his oath was obliged to comply, and Semele perished in celestial fire. But being six months gone with child of Bacchus, the child was preserved, and sewed up for other three months in Jupiter's thigh; during which period the god is said to have limped, as the votaries of Bacchus have often done since. But when Bacchus grew up, and visited the infernal regions, he was permitted to bring back his mother to life again. She was worshipped under the name of Thyone, at Brasiæ in Laconia, which she had visited with her son. See BACCHUS, MYSTERIES, and MYTHO

LOGY

SEMEN, in botany, seed. See BOTANY, Index. With respect to number, plants are either furnished with one seed, as sea-pink and bistort; two, as wood-roof and the umbelliferous plants; three, as spurge; four, as the lip-flowers of Tournefort and rough-leaved plants of Ray; or many, as ranunculus, anemone, and poppy. The form of seeds is likewise extremely various, being large or small, round, oval, heart-shaped, kidney-shaped, angular, prickly, rough, hairy, wrinkled, sleek or shining, black, white, or brown. Most seeds have only one cell or internal cavity; those of lesser burdock, valerian, lamb's lettuce, cornelian cherry, and sebesten, have two. With respect to substance, seeds are either soft, membranaceous, or of a hard bony substance; as in gromwell, tamarind, and all the nuciferous plants. In point of magnitude, seeds are either very large, as in the cocoa-nut; or very small, as in campanula, ammannia, and throat-wort. With respect to situation they are either dis

The

persed promiscuously through the pulp (semina nidulantia), as in water-lily; affixed to a suture or joining of the valves of the seed-vessel, as in the cross-shaped and pea-bloom flowers; or placed upon a placenta or receptacle within the seed vessel, as in tobacco and thorn-apple. Seeds are said to be naked (semina nuda) which are not contained in a cover or vessel; such are those of the lip and compound flowers, the umbelliferous and rough-leaved plants; covered seeds (semina tecta) are contained in some vessel, whether of the capsule, pod, berry, apple, or cherry kind. A simple seed is such as bears neither crown, wing, nor downy pappus; the varieties in seeds, arising from these circumstances, are particularly enumerated under their respective heads. In assimilating the animal and vegetable kingdoms, Linnæus denominates seeds the eggs of plants. The fecundity of plants is frequently marvellous; from a single plant or stalk of Indian Turkey wheat, are produced, in one summer, 2000 seeds; of elecampane 3000; of sun-flower 4000; of poppy 32,000; of a spike of cat's tail 10,000 and upwards; a single fruit, or seed vessel of tobacco, contains 1000 seeds; that of white poppy 8000 Mr. Ray relates, from experiments made by himself, that 1012 tobacco-seeds are equal in weight to one grain; and that the weight of the whole quantum of seeds in a single tobacco plant is such as must, according to the above proportion, determine their number to be 360,000. same author estimates the annual produce of a single stalk of spleen-wort to be upwards of 1,000,000 of seeds. The dissemination of plants respects the different methods or vehicles by which nature has contrived to disperse their seeds for the purpose of increase. These by naturalists are generally reckoned four-1. Rivers and running waters. 2. The wind. 3. Animals. 4. An elastic spring, peculiar to the seeds themselves. 1. The seeds which are carried along by rivers and torrents are frequently conveyed many hundreds of leagues from their native soil, and cast upon a very different climate, to which, however, by degrees, they render themselves familiar. 2. Those which are carried by the wind are either winged, as in fir-tree, trumpetflower, tulip-tree, birch, arbor-vitæ, meadow rue, and Jessamine, and some umbelliferous plants; furnished with a pappus, or downy crown, as in valerian, poplar, reed, succulent swallow-wort, cotton-tree, and many of the compound flowers; placed within a winged calyx or seed-vessel, as in scabious, sea-pink, dock, dioscorea, ash, maple, and elm-trees, logwood and woad; or, lastly, contained within a swelled calyx or seedvessel, as in winter-cherry, cucubalus, melilot, bladder-nut, fumitory, bladder-sena, heart seed, and chick-peas. 3. Many birds swallow the seeds of vanelloe, juniper, misletoe, oats, millet, and other grasses, and void them entire. Squirrels, rats, parrots, and other animals, suffer many of the seeds which they devour to escape, and thus in effect disseminate them. Moles, ants, earth-worms, and other insects, by ploughing up the earth, admit a free passage to those seeds which have been scattered upon its surface. Again, some seeds attach themselves to animals, by means of hooks, crotchets, or hairs, which are

either affixed to the seeds themselves, as in hound's tongue, mouse-ear, vervain, carrot, bastard parsley, sanicle, water hemp-agrimony, arctopus and verbesina; to their calyx, as in burdock, agrimony, rhexia, small wild bugloss, dock, nettle, pellitory, and lead-wort; or to their fruit or seed-vessel, as in liquorice, enchanter's nightshade, cross-wort, clivers, French honey-suckle, and arrow-headed grass. 4. The seeds which disperse themselves by an elastic force have that force resident either in their calyx, as in oats and the greater number of ferns; in their pappus, as in centaurea crupina; or in their capsule, as in geranium, herb-bennet, African spiræa, fraxinella, horse-tail, balsam, Malabar nut, cucumber, elaterium, and male balsam-apple.

SEMEN, in the animal economy. See ANATOMY, MIDWIFERY, and PHYSIOLOGY.

SEMENDRIA, a town of Servia in the northwest of European Turkey, situated on the south side of the Danube. It is defended by an old castle, and was, in remote times, the residence of the kings of Servia. It has been repeatedly taken and retaken by the Turks and their opponents, viz. in 1688 by the Hungarians; in 1690 by the Turks; and again by the Hungarians in 1718, after which it was ceded to the Turks. Inhabitants 9000. Twenty miles south-east of Belgrade, and fifty south of Temesvar.

SEMENTINE FERIE, in antiquity, feasts held annually among the Romans, to obtain of the gods a plentiful harvest. They were celebrated in the temple of Tellus, where solemn sacrifices were offered to Tellus and Ceres. These feasts were held about seed-time, usually in the month of January; for, as Macrobius observes, they were moveable feasts.

SEMI ARIANS, in ecclesiastical history, a branch of the ancient Arians, consisting, according to Epiphanes, of such as, in appearance, condemned the errors of that heresiarch, but yet acquiesced in some of the principles thereof, only palliating and hiding them under softer and more moderate terms. Though they separated from the Arian faction (see ARIANS), they could never be brought to acknowledge that the Son was 'oμosolog, that is, consubstantial, or of the same substance with the Father; they would only allow him to be 'oposσios, that is, of a like substance with the Father, or similar to the Father in his essence, not by nature, but by a peculiar privilege. The semi-arianism of the moderns consists in their maintaining that the Son was from all eternity begotten by the will of the Father, contrary to the doctrine of the orthodox, who seem to teach that the eternal generation is necessary. Such at least are the respective opinions of Dr. Clarke and bishop Bull. See THEOLOGY.

SEMIAN'NULAR, adj. Lat. semi and annulus, a ring. Half round.

Another boar tusk, somewhat slenderer, and of a semiannular figure. Grew's Museum. SEM'IBREF, n. s. Fr. semibreve.

He takes my hand, and as a still which stays A semibref 'twixt each drop, he niggardly, As loth to enrich me, so tells many a lye. Donne. Semibref is a note in musick relating to time, and