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SLIP-SLOTH.

as it had at the last moment of revolution. velocity gives far greater range and force than could be imparted in mere throwing.

This 1707-1725), containing also an excellent account of the topography, meteorology, and population of the island, which book was the means of introducing into the Pharmacopoeia a number of excellent drugs, hitherto unknown.

SLIP, in a Dockyard, is a smooth, inclined plane, sloping down to the water, on which a ship is built. It requires to have a very solid foundation. Among modern inventions is a slip on which a sort of truck runs on numerous rails. This truck is run under a ship as she floats; the water is diminished till she rests on it, and it is then hauled up the slip by steam power until she is high and dry. Such a slip takes the place of a dry dock. See also LAUNCH

and SHIP-BUILDING.

SLIPPED, in Heraldry, a term of blazon applied to a leaf, branch, or flower, which is represented with a stalk, and torn from the parent stem.

SLOANE, SIR HANS, an eminent physician and naturalist, of Scotch parentage, his father having been the chief of the Scottish colony which was settled in Ulster by James I. of Great Britain, was born at Killyleagh, in County Down, Ireland, 16th April 1660. He devoted himself during his boyhood to natural history and medicine, and in spite of an attack of hæmoptysis, which lasted from his 16th till his 19th year, he arrived in London in 1679, with an excellent knowledge of the first of these sciences, and a fair acquaintance with the second. His apprenticeship to Stafforth, a pupil of Stahl (q. v.), and the acquaintance, subsequently ripened into close friendship, which he formed with Boyle and Ray, two of the most celebrated naturalists of their time, did much to encourage and advance him in his favourite studies. During a brief sojourn in France, he attended the lectures of Tournefort and Du Verney, obtained on his return, by the active support of Sydenham (q. v.), a footing in London as a physician, and was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1685, and of the Royal College of Physicians in 1687; but in September of the latter year, he accompanied Monk, Duke of Albemarle, to Jamaica, and investigated the botany of that and the adjoining islands with such zeal and diligence during the 15 months of his stay, that his herbarium numbered 800 species. Resuming his professional practice on his return, he became physician to Christ's Hospital (1694-1724), President of the College of Physicians (1719-1735), Secretary to the Royal Society (1693), Foreign Associate of the French Academy of Sciences (1708), and succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as President of the Royal Society in 1727. He had been created a baronet and physician-general to the army in 1716; and in 1727 received the further honour of being appointed royal physician. Though of remarkably delicate constitution, he lived to the great age of 92, dying at Chelsea, 11th January 1753. The chief point to be remarked in S.'s moral character was his benevolence, as shewn in the charitable to which he applied the whole of his salary as physician of Christ's Hospital, in his zealous promotion of the various schemes for affording medicine and attendance gratuitously to the poor, and his support of the Foundling Hospital, of which he was one of the founders. By long-continued perseverance, he succeeded in forming a most extensive museum of natural history, a library of 50,000 volumes, and 3560 MSS., which he directed to be offered at his death to the nation for £20,000 (about one-fourth of its real value), and which formed the commencement of the British Museum (q. v.). He also contributed numerous memoirs to the Philosophical Transactions, whose publication he superintended for a number of years. But his great work was the Natural History of Jamaica (fol.

uses

SLOBDO ́SK, or SLOBODSKOI, a town of Russia, in the government of Viatka, is situated on the river Viatka, about 16 miles north-east of the town of the same name. Pop. 5914.

SLOE, or SLOE-THORN (Prunus spinosa), a shrub of the same genus with the plum, and per haps really of the same species with it and the bullace. It is generally a shrub of 4-10 feet high, sometimes becoming a small tree of 15-20 feet. It is much branched, and the branches terminate in spines. The youngest shoots are covered with a fine down. The flowers are small, snow-white, and generally appear before the leaves. The fruit is ovate, and generally about the size of the largest peas. or almost globose, pale blue with blackish bloom, The S. is abundant in thickets and borders of woods, and in arid places in Britain and almost all parts of Europe. The shoots make beautiful walkingsticks. Although spiny, the S. is not suitable for hedges, as its roots spread, and it encroaches on the The flowers, with the calyx, are purgative, and are fields. The bark is bitter, astringent, and tonic. in some places much used as a domestic medicine. The leaves are used for adulterating tea. The unripe fruit dyes black. The fruit is very austere. It is much used on the continent of Europe for making a preserve, also in some places for making a kind of brandy. An astringent extract, called German Acacia, is prepared from it, which was once much employed in cases of diarrhoea and mucous and bloody discharges. The juice is much used to impart roughness to port wine, and in the fabrication of spurious port.

SLO'NIM, a town of Russian Poland, in the government of Grodno, and 72 miles south-east of the town of that name. It has large manufactures of cloth. Pop. 10,021.

SLOOP is a one-masted cutter-rigged vessel, differing from a cutter, according to old authorities, in having a fixed bowsprit and somewhat smaller sails in proportion to the hull. The terms 'sloop' and cutter' appear, however, to be used nearly indiscriminately. In the British navy, a sloop-ofwar is a vessel, of whatever rig, between a corvette and a gun-boat, and ordinarily constituting the command of a commander. In the days of the sailing navy, sloops-of-war carried from 10 to 18 guns; but, with the introduction of steam, the number of guns has ceased to be distinctive.

sive than necessaries in the army. They comprise SLOPS, in the Navy, are somewhat more extenthe clothes and bedding of a sailor. Within certain limits, government, acting through the ship's paymaster, supplies the men with slops at cost price. When a sailor dies, his slops are sold by auction for the benefit of his representatives.

SLOTH (Bradypus), a genus of mammalia, of the order Edentata, and family Tardigrada. The name was given from observation of the very slow and awkward movements of the animals of this genus on the ground; but a better acquaintance with their habits, and observation of their movements among the branches of trees, for which their conformation peculiarly adapts them, have shewn it to be by no means appropriate or descriptive. In like manner, Buffon's notion that they are creatures of imperfect organisation, and doomed to a miserable existence, has been completely exploded. Their structure, like that of every other creature, is admirably

SLOTTING-MACHINE-SLUG.

adapted to their mode of life. They feed on the is about two feet in length, of a uniform grayish-
leaves, buds, and young shoots of trees, amongst the
branches of which they are born and spend their
whole life, rarely and unwillingly descending to the
ground. They do not walk upon the branches,
but cling beneath them, with the back downwards.
The fore-legs are much longer than the hinder ones,
and are used for embracing a branch, or for drawing
in the branches on the foliage of which they are to
feed, and both the fore and hind feet are furnished
with very long, curved, and sharp claws. The
pelvis is very wide; and the hind-legs, thus widely
separated, also diverge from one another. The
structure of the wrist and ankle-joints is such that
the palm or sole is turned towards the body, so
that upon the ground, the animal is compelled to
rest on the side of the hind-foot, whilst the length
of the fore-legs causes it to rest on the knee or
elbow of them, struggling forward by a shuffling
movement, and dragging itself along by stretching
out the fore-legs alternately and hooking the claws
into the ground, or grasping some object. But in a
dense tropical forest, sloths generally find it easy to
pass from the branches of one tree to those of
another, often taking advantage for this pur-
pose of a time when branches are brought within
their reach by the wind. Where the trees are more
distant from each other, they will eat up the
whole foliage of a tree ere they descend from it.
The hair of sloths is coarse and shaggy, of a very
peculiar texture, inelastic, and much like grass

brown colour, often with a reddish tint. The best-
known species of THREE-TOED S. is the AI (Bradypus
or Acheus tridactylus), which is smaller than the
Unau, has a more obtuse muzzle, and is generally
brownish gray, slightly variegated with hairs of
different tints, the head darker than the body. All
the sloths belong to the tropical parts of America.
SLO'TTING-MACHINE, a machine for cutting
slots, or square grooves, in metal. It is of great
engineering, and many very
importance in mechanical
been made for facilitating
ingenious inventions have
the process. The principle
is, however, very simple, and
is the same in all. It con-
sists of a cutting tool, or
chisel, held very firmly in
an arm, which is pressed
down and raised alternately.
The tool is thus made to
pare off a thin portion of
the metal each time it de-
Slotting-machine.
scends, until it has cut a
slot of sufficient size. Water is continually thrown
on, to prevent the metal from becoming overheated
by the friction.

Three-toed Sloth (Bradypus trydactylus).

Buckingham, 18 miles west of London, by the Great
SLOUGH, a village of England, in the county of
Western Railway. On the road between S. and

Windsor, which is distant about two and a half
miles, lived Sir William Herschel, and at the obser-
vatory which he erected here, in which was
placed his great telescope, many of his important
astronomical discoveries were made. Pop. (1861)

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3425.

Their

SLOVAKS, THE, are the Slavic inhabitants of North Hungary, who, in the 9th c., formed the nucleus of the great Moravian kingdom, but who, after the bloody battle of Presburg (907 A. D.), were gradually subjugated by the Magyars, to whom even yet they bear no friendly feeling. number is reckoned at 2,750,000, of whom 800,000 belong to the Protestant, the rest to the Catholic Church. The S., whose character probably comes nearest to that of the old Slavic type, travel in great numbers over Germany and Poland as pedlars. Their language is a dialect of Bohemian. Among the most notable of the Slovak authors are the poets Holly and Kollar (q. v.); Matth. Bel (1684

the first Slovak journal; Bernolak, author of a Slovak grammar; Palkovitsh (died 1835); and Tablitsh, who published four volumes of poetry (1806-1812). A fine collection of popular Slovak ballads has been published by Kollar (2 vols., Ofen, 1834).

withered in the sun, but affords an excellent protection from insects, whilst it also gives them such an appearance that they are not readily observed except-1749); Stephan Leschka (1757-1818), editor of when in motion. The muzzle of sloths is short, and the tail is short. There are no incisor teeth, but sharp canine teeth, and eight molars in the upper, six in the lower jaw. The molars are cylindrical, penetrated by no laminae of enamel, and adapted merely for crushing, not for grinding the food. For this, however, there is compensation in the stomach, SLOW-MATCH, a combustible material, such which is somewhat imperfectly divided, by transverse as cotton, hemp, tow, &c., often dipped in a solution ligatures, into four compartments, for the longer of nitrate of potash (saltpetre), and formed into a retention and more thorough digestion of the food, thin rope. It is used for exploding gunpowder in although there is no rumination. The female sloth various ways, on account of its slow, steady way of produces only one young one at a birth, which clings burning, a sufficient length being taken to enable to its mother till it becomes able to provide for itself. the operator to remove to a safe distance before The voice of sloths is a low plaintive cry. Their the explosion. Their the explosion. Slow-match was much used by chef enemies are large snakes, but against these artillerymen for firing of cannon, but it has generthey defend themselves by their powerful fore-legs ally given way to friction fusees and percussion and claws. A sloth has been known to grasp a dog round the neck and strangle it. There are very few species. One species has the fore-feet furnished with only two toes: the others have three. These, with other differences, have been made the ground of a recent division of the genus into two. The TwoTOED S., or UNAU (Bradypus or Cholapus didactylus),

774

caps.

SLUBBING. See SPINNING.

SLUG (Limax), a genus of gasteropodous molluscs. of the division Monacia (hermaphrodite), and of the family Limacidæ, which is closely allied to the snail family, Helicidæ, but has no external shell.

There

SLUR-SMALLPOX.

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heads, BAYONET, FIREARMS, LANCE, SWORD, PISTOL, &c.

SMALL-ARMS FACTORIES, ROYAL, are the establishments through which all the small-arms of every description are supplied to the regular army, the militia, yeomanry, and volunteers. The headquarters are at Enfield, where there is a vast manufactory; at Birmingham, there is a considerable establishment for viewing the aris supplied by contractors; and at Pimlico there is a factory for repairing damaged arms, and for training armourer-sergeants for detached service with regiments. For many years, there had been a small ordnance factory at Enfield Lock, where a few thousand muskets were laboriously forged by hand each year; but when the sudden introduction of the rifle, and the demands of the Russian war, called for a supply of arms, which the trade of all Europe and America was unable to meet, government determined to erect machinery for the fabrication of arms. For this purpose, the factory at

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1. Gray slug; 2. Black slug; 3. The same full grown, and as it Enfield was entirely remodelled; machinery of

appears when at rest; 4. Its eggs.

great power and delicacy was adopted, and now, when in full work, the factory can turn out daily dormant, taking shelter under clods and at the roots 1000 complete and proved rifles, besides a corres of plants. They lay eggs in clusters, in moist places, ponding complement of other small-arms. At the often at the roots of grass. The eggs resemble small same time, the accuracy of workmanship is so great, oval bags of jelly. The body is generally oval or that a hundred rifles might be taken entirely to oblong, elongated. The foot is not distinct from the pieces, the several portions thrown promiscuously body. There are four retractile tentacles; the eyes together, and a hundred complete rifles could be are at the tips of the longer pair. Slugs often climb instantly re-formed without any difficulty from the trees in quest of decaying vegetable matter on which same pieces. Much of the merit of this great to feed, and let themselves down by means of establishment is due to Colonel Manley Dixon of mucous threads, for the formation of which there is the Royal Artillery, who has superintended the a small aperture at the hinder end of the body. Of factory since it has been remodelled. The success British species, one of the most common is the GRAY of the factory has reduced in a remarkable degree S. (Limax agrestis), which is of a whitish ash colour; the cost of rifles, and has brought down correspondanother is the GREAT GRAY S. (L. maximus or anti-ingly the price charged by the trade for the large quorum), the largest British species; another is the quantities still intrusted to it. BLACK S. (L. ater), often popularly called the Black Snail. The RED S. (Agrion agrestis) is also very plentiful. Careful gardeners often gather slugs by the aid of a lantern at night, and destroy them. They may also be killed by watering the ground with a weak solution of ammonia.

SLUR, in Music, an arch drawn over two or more notes not on the same degree, to indicate that these notes are to be played legato, or smoothly and fluently

In vocal music, a slur is placed

over all the notes that are to be sung to the same syllable, unless where they are grouped together by a common line. A slur must be distinguished from a tie, which is a similar arch drawn over two notes on the same degree, and denoting that instead of the two notes written, one is to be played of the length

of both.

The cost of the factories, when in full operation, is of course considerable. In the year 1865, when the demand for small-arms was small, the annual charge was only £172,974.

SMALL DEBTS is a phrase current in Scotland to denote debts under £12, recoverable in the Sheriff Court. See SHERIFF. In England, the same debts are recoverable in the County Court (q. v.).

SMALLPOX, or VARI'OLA, is one of the most formidable of the class of febrile diseases known as

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the Exanthemata (q. v.). All cases of regular smallpox are divisible into three stages-viz. (1), the progress and maturation of the specific erupthat of the initial or eruptive fever; (2), that of tion; and (3) that of the decline. Some writers make a primary stage of the period of incubation, or of the time intervening between the reception of the poison into the system, and the first appearance of febrile symptoms; but this is not entitled to be regarded as a stage of the disease, seeing that no symptoms of disorder have begun to shew themselves. The first stage begins with rigors, followed by heat and dryness of the skin, a quickened pulse, furred tongue, loss of appetite, pain in the pit of the stomach, with nausea, vomiting, headache, and often pains in the back and limbs. The violence of the pains in the back, and the obstinacy of the vomiting, are frequently very well marked and characteristic symptoms. In children, the disease is often ushered in by convulsions; while delirium sometimes attends its outset in adults. On the third day, minute red specks begin to come out first on the face, then on the neck and wrists, and on SMALL-ARMS, in the modern acceptation, the trunk of the body, and lastly, on the lower consist of the weapons actually carried by a man. extremities. The fever usually begins to subside They have been described under their respective as soon as the eruption appears, and by the

SLUTSK, a town of Russian Poland, in the government of Minsk, about 63 miles south of the town of that name, near the source of the Lesser Slutch. With the exception of its public buildings, the houses are almost entirely of wood. Pop. 8226. SMACK is a generic term for small decked or half-decked vessels employed in the coasting and fishing trade. The majority of smacks are, however, rigged as cutters, sloops, or yawls. According to Wedgewood, the m in this word is a corruption of n; the Anglo-Saxon has snakk, a small vessel, and there is a corresponding form in the other Teutonic and Scandinavian tongues.

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