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rails, locomotives, mining machinery, steam-boilers, stoves, carriages, edge-tools, &c. A public library, a theatre, an academy of music, a hospital, a public hall, a driving park, a Roman Catholic cathedral, a home for the friendless, and a museum of Indian stone relics are among the more prominent features of the place. The population was 9223 in 1860, 35,092 in 1870, and 45,850 in 1880.

Slocum Farm, as the site was called subsequent to 1798, saw its first blast-furnace erected in 1840 by George and Selden Scranton, who soon added a rolling-mill and the manufacture of rails. The opening of the railway in 1856 gave a great stimulus to the new town (1854), which obtained a city charter in 1866. It is divided into twenty-one wards, of which the 4th, 5th, 6th, 14th, 15th, and 18th are known as Hyde Park, the 1st, 2d, and 3d as Providence.

SCREAMER, a bird inhabiting Guiana and the Amazon valley, so called in 1781 by Pennant (Gen. Birds, p. 37)

allow to the Screamers the rank of a Family at least, has been much debated, and cannot be regarded as fixed. Their Anserine relations were pointed out by Prof. Parker in the Zoological Proceedings for 1863 (pp. 511-518), and in the same work for 1867 Prof. Huxley placed the Family among his Chenomorpha; but this view was contravened in 1876 by Garrod, who said, "The Screamers must have sprung from the primary avian stock as an independent offshoot at much the same time as did most of the other important families." Accordingly in 1880 Mr Sclater regarded them as forming a distinct "Order," Palamedex, which he, however, placed next to the true Anseres, from the neighbourhood of which, as has been already stated (ORNITHOLOGY, vol. xviii. p. 47), the present writer thinks the Palamedeide can hardly be removed. (A. N.) "from the violent noise it makes," the Palamedea cornuta SCREW. The screw is the simplest instrument for of Linnæus. First made known in 1648 by Marcgrave.converting a uniform motion of rotation into a uniform under the name of " Anhima," it was more fully described motion of translation (see MECHANICS, vol. xv. p. 754). and better figured by Buffon under that of Kamichi, still Metal screws requiring no special accuracy are generally applied to it by French writers. Of about the size of a cut by taps and dies. A tap is a cylindrical piece of steel Turkey, it is remarkable for the curious "horn" or slender having a screw on its exterior with sharp cutting edges; caruncle, more than three inches long, it bears on its crown, by forcing this with a revolving motion into a hole of the the two sharp spurs with which each wing is armed, and proper size, a screw is cut on its interior forming what is its elongated toes. Its plumage is plain in colour, being known as a nut or female screw. The die is a nut with of an almost uniform greyish black above, the space round sharp cutting edges used to screw upon the outside of the eyes and a ring round the neck being variegated with round pieces of metal and thus produce male screws. More white, and a patch of pale rufous appearing above the accurate screws are cut in a lathe by causing the carriage carpal joint, while the lower parts of the body are white. carrying the tool to move uniformly forward, thus a conClosely related to this bird is another first described by tinuous spiral line is cut on the uniformly revolving cylinder Linnæus as a species of Parra (JACANA, vol. xiii. p. 531), fixed between the lathe centres. The cutting tool may be to which group it certainly does not belong, but separated an ordinary form of lathe tool or a revolving saw-like disk. therefrom by Illiger to form the genus Chauna, and now known as C. chavaria, very generally in English as the

"Crested Screamer," 1 a name which was first bestowed on
the SERIEMA (q.v.). This bird inhabits the lagoons and
swamps of Paraguay and Southern Brazil, where it is called
"Chajá" or "Chaka," and is smaller than the preceding,
wanting its "horn," but having its head furnished with a
dependent crest of feathers. Its face and throat are white,
to which succeeds a blackish ring, and the rest of the
lower parts are white, more or less clouded with cinereous.
According to Mr Gibson (Ibis, 1880, pp. 165, 166), its
nest is a light construction of dry rushes, having its founda-
tion in the water, and contains as many as six eggs, which
are white tinged with buff. The young are covered with
down of a yellowish brown colour. A most singular habit
possessed by this bird is that of rising in the air and soar-
ing there in circles at an immense altitude, uttering at
intervals the very loud
cry of which its local name is an
imitation. From a dozen to a score may be seen at once
so occupying themselves. The young are often taken from
the nest and reared by the people to attend upon and de-
fend their poultry, a duty which is faithfully 2 and, owing
to the spurs with which the Chaka's wings are armed,
successfully discharged. Another very curious property
of this bird, which was observed by Jacquin, who brought
it to the notice of Linnæus, is its emphysematous condi-
tion,-there being a layer of air-cells between the skin and
the muscles, so that on any part of the body being pressed
a crackling sound is heard. In Central America occurs
another species, C. derbiana, chiefly distinguished by the
darker colour of its plumage. For this a distinct genus,
Ischyrornis, was proposed, but apparently without neces-
sity, by Reichenbach (Syst. Avium, p. xxi.).

The taxonomic position of the Palamedeida, for all will

Under this name its curious habits have been well described by Mr W. H. Hudson (Gentleman's Magazine, Sept. 1885, pp. 280-287). 2 Hence Latham's name for this species is "Faithful Jacana,"-he supposing it to belong to the genus in which Linnæus placed it.

"Tacta manu cutis, sub pennis etiàm lanosa, crepat ubique fortiter" (Syst. Nat., ed. 12, i. p. 260).

(See MACHINE TOOLS, vol. xv. p. 153.)

Errors of Screws.-For scientific purposes the screw must be so regular that it moves forward in its nut exactly the same distance for each given angular rotation around its axis. As the mountings of a screw introduce many errors, the final and exact test of its accuracy can only be made when it is finished and set up for use. A large screw can, however, be roughly examined in the following manner. (1) 'See whether the surface of the threads has a perfect polish. The more it departs from this, and approaches the rough torn surface as cut by the lathe tool, the worse it is. A perfect screw has a perfect polish. (2) Mount upon it between the centres of a lathe and the slip a short nut which fits perfectly. If the nut moves from end to end with equal friction, the screw is uniformn in diameter. If the nut is long, unequal resistance may be due to either an error of run or a bend in the screw. (3) Fix a microscope on the lathe carriage and focus its single cross-hair on the edge of point, its axis is straight. (4) Observe whether the short nut runs the screw and parallel to its axis. If the screw runs true at every from end to end of the screw without a wabbling motion when the screw is turned and the nut kept from revolving. If it wabbles the screw is said to be drunk. One can see this error better by fixing a long pointer to the nut, or by attaching to it a mirror and observing an image in it with a telescope. The following experi ment will also detect this error. (5) Put upon the screw two wellfitting and rather short nuts, which are kept from revolving by arms bearing against a straight edge parallel to the axis of the screw. Let one nut carry an arm which supports a microscope focused on à line ruled on the other nut. Screw this combination

screw.

to different parts of the screw. If during one revolution the microscope remains in focus, the screw is not drunk; and, if the cross-hairs bisect the line in every position, there is no error of run. Making Accurate Screws.-To produce a screw of a foot or even a yard long with errors not exceeding both of an inch is not difficult. Professor William A. Rogers of Harvard observatory has invented a process in which the tool of the lathe while cutting the screw is moved so as to counteract the errors of the lathe The screw is then partly ground to get rid of local errors. But, where the highest accuracy is needed, we must resort in the case of screws, as in all other cases, to grinding. A long solid nut, tightly fitting the screw in one position, cannot be moved freely to another position unless the screw is very accurate. If grinding material is applied and the nut is constantly tightened, it will grind out all errors of run, drunkenness, crookedness, and irregularity of size. The condition is that the nut must be long, rigid, and capable of being tightened as the grinding proceeds; also the screw must be ground longer than it will finally be needed so that the imperfect ends may be removed.

The following process will produce a screw suitable for ruling

gratings for optical purposes. Suppose it is our purpose to produce | a screw which is finally to be 9 inches long, not including bearings, and 1 inches in diameter. Select a bar of soft Bessemer steel, which has not the hard spots usually found in cast steel, about 1 inches in diameter and 30 long. Put it between lathe centres and turn it down to 1 inch diameter everywhere, except about 12 inches in the centre, where it is left a little over 1 inches in diameter for cutting the screw. Now cut the screw with a triangular thread a little sharper than 60°. Above all, avoid a fine screw, using about. 20 threads to the inch.

The grinding nut, about 11 incnes long, has now to be made. Fig. 1 represents a section of the nut, which is made of brass, or better

b

a

a

C

FIG. 1.-Section of grinding nut.

of Bessemer steel. It consists of four segments, -a, a, which can be drawn about the screw by two collars, b, b, and the screw c. Wedges between the segments prevent too great pressure on the screw. The final clamping is effected by the rings and screws, d, d, which enclose the flanges, e, of the segments. The screw is now placed in a lathe and surrounded by water whose temperature can be kept constant to 1o C., and the nut placed on it. In order that the weight of the nut may not make the ends too small, it must either be counterbalanced by weights hung from a rope passing over pulleys in the ceiling, or the screw must be vertical during the whole process. Emery and oil seem to be the only available grinding materials, though a softer silica powder might be used towards the end of the operation to clean off the emery and prevent future wear. Now grind the screw in the nut, making the nut pass backwards and forwards over the screw, its whole range being nearly 20 inches at first. Turn the nut end for end every ten minutes and continue for two weeks, finally making the range of the nut only about 10 inches, using finer washed emery and moving the lathe slower to avoid heating. Finish with a fine silica powder or rouge. During the process, if the thread becomes too blunt, recut the nut by a short tap so as not to change the pitch at any point. This must of course not be done less than five days before the finish. Now cut to the proper length; centre again in the lathe under a microscope; and turn the bearings. A screw so ground has less errors than from any other system of mounting. The periodic error especially will be too small to be discovered, though the mountings and graduation and centering of the head will introduce it; it must therefore finally be corrected.

Mounting of Screws.-The mounting must be devised most carefully, and is indeed more difficult to make without error than the screw itself. The principle which should be adopted is that no workmanship is perfect; the design must make up for its imperfections. Thus the screw can never be made to run true on its bearings, and hence the device of resting one end of the carriage on the nut must be rejected. Also all rigid connexion between the nut and the carriage must be avoided, as the screw can never be adjusted parallel to the ways on which the carriage rests. For many purposes, such as ruling optical gratings, the carriage must move accurately forward in a straight line as far as the horizontal plane is concerned, while a little curvature in the vertical plane produces very little effect. These conditions can be satisfied by making the ways V-shaped and grinding with grinder somewhat shorter than the ways. By constant reversals and by lengthening or shortening the stroke, they will finally become nearly perfect. The vertical curvature can be sufficiently tested by a short carriage carrying a delicate spirit level. Another and very efficient form of ways is V-shaped with a flat top and nearly vertical sides. The carriage rests on the flat top and is held by springs against one of the nearly vertical sides. To determine with accuracy whether the ways are straight, fix a flat piece of glass on the carriage and rule a line on it by moving it under a diamond; reverse and rule another line near the first, and measure the distance apart at the

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The nut is shown in fig. 2. It is made in two halves, of wrought iron filled with boxwood or lignum vitæ plugs, on which the screw is cut. To each half a long piece of sheet steel is fixed which bears against a guiding edge, to be described presently. The two halves are held to the screw by springs, so that each moves forward almost independently of the other. To join the nut to the

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carriage, a ring is attached to the latter, vertical and which can turn round a The bars fixed midway on the two halves against this ring at points 90° distant Hence each half does its share independother in moving the carriage forward. parallelism between the screw and the tricity in the screw mountings thus the forward motion of the carriage. The which the steel pieces of the nut rest can form as to correct any small error of run the screw. Also, by causing it to move forwards periodically, the periodic error mountings can be corrected.

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whose plane is vertical axis. of the nut bear from its axis. ently of the Any want of ways or eccenscarcely affects guide against be made of such due to wear of backwards and of the head and

the periodic since the perimillionth of an duce "ghosts

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In making gratings for optical purposes error must be very perfectly eliminated, odic displacement of the lines only oneinch from their mean position will Fig. 2. proin the spectrum.1 Indeed this is the most sensitive method of detecting the existence of this error, and it is practically impossible to mount the most perfect of screws without introducing it. A very practical method of determining this error is to rule a short grating with very long lines on a piece of common thin plate glass; cut it in two with a diamond and superimpose the two halves with the rulings together and displaced sideways over each other one-half the pitch of the screw. On now looking at the plates in a proper light so as to have the spectral colours show through it, dark lines will appear, which are wavy if there is a periodic error and straight if there is none. By measuring the comparative amplitude of the waves and the distance apart of two lines, the amount of the periodic error can be determined. The phase of the periodic error is best found by a series of trials after setting the corrector at the proper amplitude as determined above. A machine properly made as above and kept at a constant temperature should be able to make a scale of 6 inches in length, with errors at no point exceeding roooooth of an inch. When, however, a grating of that length is attempted at the rate of 14,000 lines to the inch, four days and nights are required and the result is seldom perfect, possibly on account of the wear of the machine or changes of temperature. Gratings, however, less than 3 inches long are easy to make. (H. A. R.)

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ŠCRIBE, AUGUSTIN EUGÈNE (1791-1861), the most popular playwright of France, was born at Paris on 24th December 1791, and died there on 20th February 1861. His father was a silk merchant and he was well educated, being destined for the bar. But, having a real gift for the theatre (a gift which unfortunately was not allied with sufficient literary power to make his works last), he very soon broke away from professional study and at the age of twenty produced, in collaboration, as is common in France, the first of a series of dramas which continued for Les Dervis (1811) is usually cited as the first fifty years. play in which he took a hand, though, as for some time he did not sign his work, identification is somewhat difficult. He achieved no distinct success till 1816, when Une Nuit de Garde Nationale made him in a way famous. Thenceforward his fertility was unceasing and its results prodigious. There may be in existence a complete list of Scribe's works, but we have never seen any that pretended to be such. He wrote every kind of drama-vaudevilles,

centre and at the two ends by a micrometer. If the centre measures

ment is equal to the mean of the two end ones, the line is straight. This is better than the method with a mirror mounted on the carriage and a telescope. The screw itself must rest in bearings, and the end motion be prevented by a point bearing against its flat end, which is protected by hardened steel or a flat diamond. Collar bearings introduce periodic errors. The secret of success is so to

1 In a machine made by the present writer for ruling gratings the periodic error is entirely due to the graduation and centering of the head. The uncorrected periodie error from this cause displaces the lines th of an inch, which is sufficient to entirely ruin all gratings l`made without correcting it. XXI.

70

comedies, tragedies, opera-libretti. To one theatre alone he is said to have furnished more than a hundred pieces. But his life was entirely uneventful, and his election to the Academy in 1834 is almost the only incident which deserves chronicling. It ought to be said to Scribe's credit that, although he was the least original of writers and was more an editor of dramas than a dramatist, although he was for many years an object of the bitterest envy to impecunious geniuses owing to his pecuniary success, and although he never has pleased and never can please any critic who applies purely literary tests, his character stands very high for literary probity and indeed generosity, He is said in some cases to have sent sums of money for "copyright in ideas" to men who not only had not actually collaborated with him but who were unaware that he had taken suggestions from their work. His industry was untiring and his knowledge both of the mechanism of the stage and of the tastes of the audience was wonderful. Nevertheless he hardly deserves a place in literature, his style being vulgar, his characters commonplace, even his plots lacking power and grasp. He wrote a few novels, but none of any mark. The best known of Scribe's pieces after his first successful one are Une Chaîne (1842), Le Verre d'Eau (1842), Adrienne Lecouvreur (1849), and the libretti of many of the most famous operas of the middle of the century, especially those of Auber and Meyerbeer.

SCRIBES. See ISRAEL, vol. xiii. p. 419.

children during the first dentition by inflammatory skin eruptions of obstinate character on the face and other parts; later on in youth there appear glandular swellings either externally, as on the neck, or affecting the gland structures of the chest or abdomen, while at the same time mucous membranes and bones may become implicated. The distinctive features of the scrofulous inflammatory affections are their tendency to chronicity and to suppurative and degenerative changes, the affected parts either healing slowly with resulting disfigurement, as on the neck, or continuing to retain traces of the products of the diseased action, which may set up serious disturbance of the health at some future time. Further, the scrofulous constitution always influences the duration and progress of any disease from which the individual may suffer, as well as its results. Thus in pneumonia, to which the scrofulous would seem to be specially liable, the products of the inflammation are not readily absorbed as in previously healthy persons, but, remaining in the lung-tissues, are apt to undergo caseous degenerative changes, which may issue in phthisis (see PNEUMONIA and PHTHISIS).. The connexion of scrofula with tubercle is pointed out in the article PATHOLOGY (loc. cit.).

Scrofula may under favourable circumstances tend to improvement as age advances, and it occasionally happens that persons who in early life showed unmistakable evidences of this condition appear ultimately to outgrow it, and become in all respects healthy and vigorous. The treatment is essentially similar to that described for rickets or phthisis, and is partly preventive and partly curative. It consists mainly in hygienic measures to promote the health and nutrition of the young, and of suitable diet, tonics, &c., where evidences of the disease have declared themselves. See RICKETS, PHTHISIS.

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SCRUB-BIRD, the name (for want of a better, since it is not very distinctive) conferred upon the members of an Australian genus, one of the most curious ornithological types of the many furnished by that country. The first examples were procured by the late Mr Gilbert between Perth and Augusta in West Australia, and were described by Gould in the Zoological Society's Proceedings for 1844 (pp. 1, 2) as forming a new genus and species under the name of Atrichia clamosa, the great peculiarity observed

SCRIVENER'S PALSY. See CRAMP, vol. vi. p. 543. SCROFULA or STRUMA (formerly known in England as "king's evil," from the belief that the touch of the sovereign could effect a cure 1), a constitutional morbid condition generally exhibiting itself in early life, and characterized mainly by defective nutrition of the tissues and by a tendency to inflammatory affections of a low type with degenerative changes in their products. The subject has been considered in most of its features under PATHOLOGY (vol. xviii. p. 405), and only a further brief reference is here necessary. Scrofula may be either inherited or acquired. Heredity is of all causes the most potent, and naturally operates with greater certainty where both parents possess the taint. As in all hereditary diseases, however, the liability may be scarcely perceptible for one or two generations, but may then reappear. Other causes refer-by that naturalist being the absence of any bristles around able to parentage may readily produce this constitutional state in children, as weakness or ill health in one or both parents, and, as seems probable, marriages of consanguinity. But, apart altogether from hereditary or congenital influences, the scrofulous habit is frequently developed, especially in the young, by such unfavourable hygienic conditions as result from overcrowded, cold, and dark dwellings, insufficient and improper food, exposure, and debauchery. Even among the old in such circumstances the evidences of scrofula may be seen to present themselves where before they had been absent.

There are two well-marked types of the scrofulous constitution to be often observed, especially among the young. In the one the chief features are a fair complexion with delicate thin skin, blue eyes, dilated pupils, long eyelashes, soft muscles, and activity of the circulatory and nervous system; while in the other the skin is dark, the features heavy, the figure stunted, and all the functions, physical and mental, inactive. In many instances, however, it will be found that both types are more or less mixed together in one individual. The manifestations of scrofula generally appear in early life, and are often exhibited in young 1 This superstition can be traced back to the time of Edward the Confessor in England, and to a much earlier period in France. Samuel Johnson was touched by Queen Anne in 1712, and the same prerogative of royalty was exercised by Prince Charles Edward in 1745.

the gape, in which respect alone it seemed to differ from the already known genus Sphenura. In March 1866 Mr Wilcox obtained on the banks of the Richmond river on the eastern side of Australia some other examples, which proved the existence of a second species, described by Mr Ramsay in the Proceedings for that year (pp. 438-440) as A. rufescens; but still no suspicion of the great divergence of the genus from the ordinary Passerine type was raised, and it was generally regarded as belonging to the Malurida or Australian Warblers. However, the peculiar formation of the sternum in Atrichia attracted the present writer's attention almost as soon as that of A. clamosa was exhibited in the museum of the College of Surgeons, and at his request Mr Ramsay a little later sent to the museum of the university of Cambridge examples in spirit of A. rufescens, which shewed a common structure. One of the sternal peculiarities was noticed by Mr Sclater (Ibis, 1874, p. 191, note); and in the present work (BIRDS, iii. p. 741) the Scrub-birds were declared to form a distinct Family, Atrichiide, standing, so far as was known, alone with the Lyre-birds (see vol. xv. p. 115) as "abnormal Passeres." Much the same view was also taken the next year by Garrod, who, in the Proceedings for 1876 (pp. 516, 518, pl. lii. figs. 4-7), further dwelt on the taxonomic importance of the equally remarkable characters of the syringeal muscles exhibited alike bv Menura and Atrichia, which he accord

ingly placed together. in a division of the Acromyodian | himself conspicuous by a letter attacking Corneille's Cid, Passeres, differing from all the rest and since recognized, as has been said (ORNITHOLOGY, vol. xviii. pp. 40, 41), by Mr Sclater as a Sub-order Pseudoscines. A detailed anatomical description of Atrichia has, however, yet to be given, and a comparison of many other Australian types, is needed 1 before it can be certainly said to have no nearer ally than Menura. Both the known species of Scrub-bird are about

West-Australian Scrub-und (Atrichia clamosa).

which he addressed to that body. He was himself an industrious dramatist, L'Amour Tyrannique being the chief piece which (and that only partially) has escaped oblivion. His other most famous work was the epic of Alaric (1654). He lent his name to his sister's first romances, but did little beyond correcting the proofs. His death occurred at Paris on 14th May 1667. Scudéry's swashbuckler affectations (he terminates his introduction to the works of Théophile de Viaud by something like a challenge in form to any one who does not admit the supremacy of the deceased poet), the bombast of his style, and his various oddities have been rather exaggerated by literary gossip and tradition. Although probably not quite sane, he had some poetical power, a fervent love of literature, a high sense of honour and of friendship.

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His sister MADELEINE (1607-1701), born also at Havre in 1607, was a writer of much more ability and of a much better regulated character. She was very plain and had no fortune, but her abilities were great and she was very well educated. Establishing herself at Paris with her brother, she was at once admitted to the Rambouillet coterie, afterwards established a salon of her own under the title of the Société du Samedi, and for the last half of the 17th century, under the pseudonym of "Sapho" or her own name, was acknowledged as the first blue-stocking of France and of the world. Her celebrated novels, Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus, Clélie, Ibrahim ou l'Illustre Bassa, Almahide, and others are known by quotation to every one, and were the delight of all Europe, including persons of the wit and sense of Madame de Sévigné. But for at least a century and a has often been satirized even by persons well read in letters half they have lain unread, and their immense length with the term "folio," when in fact they were originally issued in batches of small octavos, sometimes (allowing for two parts to each volume) running to a score or so. criticism as wholes. With classical or Oriental personages Neither in conception nor in execution will they bear for nominal heroes and heroines, the whole language and action are taken from the fashionable ideas of the time, ably with Mademoiselle de Scudéry's contemporaries. The and the personages can be identified either really or colourinterminable length of the stories is made out by endless cessive abductions of the heroines, conceived and related conversations and, as far as incidents go, chiefly by sucin the most decorous spirit, for Mademoiselle de Scudéry is nothing if not decorous. Nevertheless, although the to perceive their attraction for the wits, both male and books can hardly now be read through, it is still possible female, of a time which certainly did not lack wit. In that early day of the novel prolixity did not repel. GEORGES DE SCUDÉRY (1601-1667), the elder of the pair, raries and knew how to analyse and describe their characters "Sapho" had really studied mankind in her contempowas born at Havre, whither his father had moved from with fidelity and point. She was a real mistress of conProvence, in 1601. He served in the army for some time, versation, a thing quite new to the age at least as far as and, though in the vein of gasconading which was almost literature was concerned, and proportionately welcome. peculiar to him he no doubt exaggerated his services, there.She could moralize-a favourite employment of the timeseems little doubt that he was a stout soldier. But he con

the size of a small Thrush-A. clamosa being the larger of the two. This species is brown above, each feather barred with a darker shade; the throat and belly are reddish white, and there is a large black patch on the breast; while the flanks are brown and the lower tailcoverts rufous. A. rufescens has the white and black of the fore-parts replaced by brown, barred much as is the upper plumage. Both species are said to inhabit the thickest "scrub or brushwood forest; but little has been ascertained as to their mode of life except that the males are noisy, imitative of the notes of other birds, and given to violent gesticulations. The nest and eggs. seem never to have been found, and indeed no example of the female of either species is known to have been procured, whence that sex may be inferred to escape observation by its inconspicuous appearance and retiring habits. (A. N.) SCUDERY is the name of a family which is said to have been of Italian origin and to have transferred itself to Provence, but which is only known by the singular brother and sister who represented it during the 17th century.

ceived a fancy for literature before he was thirty, and during the whole of the middle of the century he was one of the most characteristic figures of Paris. Despite his own merit, which was not inconsiderable, and his sister's, which was more, he was unlucky in his suits for preferment. Indeed from some stories told by men not his friends he seems to have hurt his own chances by independence of spirit. He received, however, the governorship of the fortress of Notre Dame de la Garde near Marseilles in 1643, and in 1650 was elected to the Academy. Long before he had made 1 Forbes shewed that ORTHONYX (vol. xviii. p. 52) did not belong to the group as at one time supposed.

of the style which clothed the whole were considerable.
with sense and propriety, and the purely literary merits
Madeleine survived her. brother more than thirty years
(scandal says that she was not sorry to be relieved from
volumes of conversations (to a great extent extracted from
his humours), and in her later days published numerous
her novels) and short moral writings. Dryden says that he
had heard of an intention on her part to translate the
Canterbury Tales, and it is not impossible.
lost either her renown or her wits or her good sense, and
She never
died at Paris on 2d June 1701. It is unfortunate and
rather surprising that no one has recently attempted an
anthology from her immense work.

Early Christian.

HE

556

SCULPTURE

Middle Ages and modern times; classical sculpture has been already treated of under ARCHEOLOGY (CLASSICAL), vol. ii. p. 343 sq., and in the articles on the several individual artists.

are rich in examples of this sort. Ages and modern tintes, classical use of the frequently repeatles of this varian and Latte mest in the One of finest former collection was taken from the crypt of the old basilica of St Peter; it contained the body of a certain Junius Bassus, and dates from the year 359.2 Many other similar sarcophagi were made in the provinces of Rome, especially Gaul; and fine specimens exist in the museums of Arles, Marseilles, and Aix; those found in Britain are of very inferior workmanship.

In the 4th century A.D., under the rule of Constantine's successors, the plastic arts in the Roman world reached the lowest point of degradation to which they ever fell. Coarse in workmanship,, intensely feeble in design, and utterly without expression or life, the pagan sculpture of that time is merely a dull and ignorant imitation of the work of previous centuries. The old faith was dead, and the art which had sprung from it died with it. In the same century a large amount of sculpture was produced by Christian workmen, which, though it reached no very high standard of merit, was at least far superior to the pagan work. Although it shows no, increase of technical skill or knowledge of the human form, yet the mere fact that it was inspired and its subjects supplied by a real living faith was quite sufficient to give it a vigour and a dramatic force which raise it æsthetically far above the expiring efforts of paganism. Fig. 1 shows a very fine Christian relief of the 4th century, with a noble figure of an archangel holding an orb and a sceptre. It is a leaf from an ivory consular diptych, inscribed at the top ΔΕΧΟΥ ΠΑΡΟΝΤΑ ΚΑΙ MAOWN THN AITIAN, "Receive these presents and having learnt the occasion A number

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of large marble sarcophagi are the chief existing specimens of this early

Christian sculpture. In FIG. 1.-Relief in ivory of the 4th century. (British Museum.) general design they are

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close copies of pagan tombs, and are richly decorated outside with reliefs. The subjects of these are usually scenes from the Old and New Testaments. From the former those subjects were selected which were supposed to have some typical reference to the life of Christ: the Meeting of Abraham and Melchisedec, the Sacrifice of Isaac, Daniel among the Lions, Jonah and the Whale, are those which most frequently occur. Among the New Testament scenes no representations occur of Christ's sufferings; the subjects chosen illustrate His power and beneficence: the Sermon on the Mount, the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, and many of His miracles are

1 A partial exception to this rule is the scene of Christ before Pilate, which sometimes occurs.

In the 5th century other plastic' works similar in style were still produced in Italy, especially, reliefs in ivory (to a certain extent imitations of the later consular diptychs), which were used to decorate episcopal thrones or the bindings of MSS. of the Gospels. The so-called chair of St Peter, still preserved (though hidden from sight) in his great basilica, is the finest example of the former class; of less purely classical style, dating from about 550, is the ivory throne of Bishop Maximianus in Ravenna cathedral (see fig. 2). Another very remarkable work of

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FIG. 2.-Reliefs in ivory of the Baptist and the Four Evangelists in front of the episcopal throne of Maximianus in Ravenna cathedral. the 5th century is the series of small panel reliefs on the doors of S. Sabina on the Aventine Hill at Rome. They are scenes from Bible history carved in wood, and in them much of the old classic style survives.3

In the 6th century, under the Byzantine influence of Justinian, a new class of decorative sculpture was produced, especially at Ravenna. Subject reliefs do not often occur, but large slabs of marble, forming screens, altars, pulpits, and the like, were ornamented in a very skilful and original way with low reliefs of graceful vine-plants, with peacocks and other birds drinking out of chalices, all treated in a very able and highly FIG. 3.-Sixth-century capital from S. Vitale decorative manner (see fig. 3 and at Ravenna. the upper band of fig. 2). Byzantium, however, in the main, became the birthplace and

2 See Dionysius, Sac. Vat. Bas. Cryp., and Bunsen, Besch. d. Stadt Rom, 1840.

3 Various dates have been assigned to these interesting reliefs by different archeologists, but the costumes of the figures are strong evidence that they are not later than the 5th century.

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Byzan tine.

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