Spener

CER, the third earl (1782-1845), eldest son of the preceding, was member of Parliament for Oakhampton (1804); junior lord of the Treasury (1806); Chancellor of the Exchequer under Earl Grey (1830), when he bore the brunt of the Reform Bill debate; attained the peerage (1834); and when the Whigs left office devoted himself to agricultural interests, originating, and becoming first president of, the Royal Agricultural Society (1838).-FREDERICK SPENCER, fourth earl (1798-1857), younger brother of the preceding, became member of Parliament for Worcestershire (1831) and Midhurst, and a peer (1845). From 1846-8 ne was lord chamberlain and lord steward (1854).-JOHN POYNTZ SPENCER, fifth earl (1835), entered Parliament in 1857, but in the same year was elevated to the peerage. In 1868-74, in Gladstone's first ministry, he was lordlieutenant of Ireland. When Gladstone came into power again in 1880 Lord Spencer was given the lord presidency of the council. But in May, 1882, Lord Cowper, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and Mr. W. E. Forster resigned their seats in the cabinet owing to disagreement with the government's Irish policy, and Lord Spencer and Lord Frederick Cavendish were appointed to the respective positions. The administration of Lord Spencer during the succeeding three years, particularly in reference to the trial and execution of the Phoenix Park murderers, and of Myles Joyce for the Maamtrasna murder in 1884, was the object of the most bitter and envenomed attack by the Irish parliamentary party. A year after he had returned from Dublin Castle and declared in favor of Gladstone's Home Rule policy for Ireland, the same men lavished the most fulsome adulation upon him. In the Home Rule government (1892-5) Earl Spencer filled the post of first lord of the Admiralty. For third earl, see Memoir by Sir Denis Le Marchant (1876), Biographical Studies by Bagehot (new ed. 1895), and Lord Althorp by E. Myers (1890).

Spener, PHILIP JAKOB (16351705), German clergyman, the father of German Pietism, was born at Rappoltsweiler in Alsace. He became public preacher at Strassburg in 1662, and from 1666 was first pastor at Frankforton-the-Main. His attacks on Calvinism attracted much attention, but he gradually adopted a more spiritual and less aggressive style, and in 1670 instituted the collegia pietatis, from which arose the sect of the Pietists. In 1675 he published his Pia Desideria, which urged Christian charity and

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humility of faith. In 1686 he was made court preacher at Dresden. There the clergy combined against his teaching. A dispute with the University of Leipzig led to the condemnation of his religious meetings, after which he changed (1691) his residence to Berlin. The University of Halle became the centre of Spener's 'pietism.' See Life in German by Hossbach (ed. 1861) and by Wildenhahn (Eng. trans. 1881).

Spennymoor, mrkt. tn., Durham, England, 5 m. s. of Durham. Coal is mined, and there are steel works. Pop. (1911) 17,914.

Spenser, EDMUND (c. 1552-99), English poet, was born in London, being related to the Spencers of Althorp. In 1576 he retired to Hurstwood in Lancashire, where he wrote verse in the pastoral vein in honor of his Rosalind, who has not been satisfactorily identified, but was possibly Rose Dineley of Clitheroe. In 1578

he went to London, became a member of the Earl of Leicester's household, and acquainted_with Sidney and Sir Edward Dyer; joined with them and Harvey in the literary coterie known as the 'Areopagus,' and experimented in the adaptation of classical metres to English verse. The publication of The Shepheard's Calendar in 1579 brought him literary fame. In 1580 he went to Ireland as secretary to the lord-deputy, Lord Grey de Wilton. In 1581 he was made clerk of the Irish Court of Chancery. He also obtained grants of land at New Abbey, Co. Kildare, and elsewhere. He looked upon himself as an exile, but worked away at The Faerie Queene, and in 1588 became clerk of the council of Munster, and later obtained a grant of Kilcolman Castle, Co. Cork, the Mulla of his verse. He had litigious neighbors in Lord Roche and others, and a congenial one in Sir Walter Raleigh at Youghal. From 1589-91 he was in England, and published the first part of The Faerie Queene and other poems. By this time Spenser had become the leading influence in English letters. He returned to Ireland, and wrote his autobiographical Colin Clout's Come HomeAgaine (1595). His courtship and marriage of Elizabeth Boyle in 1594 produced the Sonnets and Epithalamion, and in the same year he resigned his clerkship. But in 1597 he once more returned to Ireland, and in 1598 he was sheriff of Cork. Kilcolman Castle was burnt during the rising of the Earl of Tyrone in the same year. Spenser fled to Cork, and thence went to London to plead the wrongs of the Munster colonists. Here he died in poverty, according to a more than doubt

Works (1611; ed. J. P. Collier, 1862; ed. R. Morris, with Life by J. W. Hales, 1869; ed. A. B. Grosart, 1880-2). Biography and Criticism-T. Warton's Observations on the Faerie Queene (1754); G. L. Craik's Spenser and his Poetry (1845); Prof. F. J. Child's edition of the works (1855, 1878); W. J. Courthope's Genius of Spenser (1868); F. G. Fleay's Guide to Chaucer and Spenser (1877); essay by Lowell in Among My Books, 2d series (1876); R. W. Church's Life of Spenser (1879); F. I. Carpenter's Outline Guide to Study of Spenser (1894).

Spermaceti consists chiefly of cetyl palmitate, C15H3COOC18 H33, along with smaller quantities of similar compounds. It occurs in the oil of the sperm and allied whales, particularly in the portion obtained from the head cavities, from which it separates in the solid state on cooling. After purification, spermaceti forms a snow - white, almost odorless, crystalline solid of specific gravity .94, that melts at about 45° c., and is insoluble in water, but dissolves in hot alcohol and ether. It is apt to become rancid on keeping and is often adulterated with paraffin, fats, and fatty acids. It is used as an ingredient of ointments and for making candles; the candles used as a standard of luminosity are made of it.

Spermatozoa. See REPRODUCTION and SEX.

Sperm Oil consists chiefly of dodecatyl oleate C17H33COOC12H252 along with similar esters of the higher monohydric alcohols, and thus differs materially from animal and vegetable oils, which are glycerol derivatives. Sperm oil is obtained from the cachalot or sperm whale. The bottle-nose whale yields a similar product-a thin, pale yellow liquid of specific gravity about .88, and of more or less fishy odor. It does not readily become rancid or gummy, and is thus a valuable lubricant. Spermophyta. See PHANERO

GAMIA.

Sperm whale. See CACHA

LOT.

Sperry, CHARLES STILLMAN (1847), American naval officer, was born in Brooklyn, N. Y. He received a public school education at Waterbury, Conn., and was graduated at the U. S. Naval Academy in 1866. He became commander in 1894, captain in 1900, rear admiral in 1906, and succeeded to the command of the fleet of sixteen battleships on the retirement of Rear-Admiral Robley D. Evans in 1908. His special service comprised a term as president of the U. S. Naval War College, membership on the General Board of the Navy, membership in the National Coast Defence Board, and assignments as delegate to the conference for the revision of the Geneva Convention for the treatment of the sick and wounded in 1906, and to the second Peace Conference at The Hague in 1907. On the organization of the battleship fleet he was selected as one of the four rear admirals to command the divisions, and he succeeded to the chief command after RearAdmiral Evans had taken the fleet from Hampton Roads to San Francisco, thus having the duty of bringing the vessels back home by way of China, Japan, and the Philippines. The homeward voyage was interrupted by the terrible earthquake disaster at Sicily and Calabria, Italy, on Dec. 28, 1908, the commander with his flagship, the Connecticut, and other vessels, being detached and sent at push speed to aid in the general work of rescue and relief. He retired from active service in March, 1909.

of

Sperrylite, a platinum arsenide, PtAs2, found in the nickel mines of Sudbury in Canada. Speusippus, ancient Greek philosopher, was a native Athens, and nephew of Plato, whom he succeeded as the head of the Academy (347 to 339 B.C.). Spey, second longest river of Scotland; rises between Badenoch and Lochaber, Inverness

Sphagnum, a genus of mosses, commonly known as bog-mosses. They have erect stems several inches long, and bear the male organs on lateral stems, somewhat resembling catkins, and the female organs on shorter lateral stems, resembling buds. The sphagnums grow in compact masses, often covering large areas. They are much used by gardeners, especially in the cultivation of orchids, by reason of the large quantity of water which they absorb and yield up according to the needs of the plant.

Sphene, or TITANITE, calcium silicate and titanate, CaSiTiO, and a common accessory rockforming mineral of the acid rocks, such as granite, rhyolite, trachyte, and syenite. It has strong double refraction and considerable dispersive power (h. = 5; sp. gr. 3.5). Fine specimens of dark brownish-green color are used as gems, though they are too soft to be of great value. The best stones are found in the gneiss of the Alps, especially Tyrol.

Sphenodon, or HATTERIA, the genus name of a New Zealand lizard (S. punctatum). It is the only living member of the order Rhynchocephalia, and in many respects displays archaic characters, known elsewhere only among fossil forms. The usual length is under two feet. There is a long tail, which is strongly compressed, and both fore and hind limbs each bear five toes, which are clawed and webbed at their bases. The upper parts of the body are clothed with small scales, intermixed with tubercles, while a crest of spines runs from the posterior part of the head to the tail. It excavates burrows, in which it remains during the day, emerging in search of food in the evening. The food always consists of small living animals. The animals are fond of lying in water, and can remain below the surface for a prolonged period. The eggs are deposited in a hole in sandy soil during the summer, but do not hatch till about thirteen months afterwards. The embryos apparently undergo what corresponds to a summer sleep within

the shell. It would seem also that the mortality among the embryos is very great, relatively few hatching out. The following are among the more generally interesting features: the quadrate, the bone to which the lower jaw is attached, is fixed to the skull, and not movable as in lizards and snakes; the vertebræ are cupped at both ends, as in fish, and the primitive reptiles, instead of having the ball and socket arrangement usual in living reptiles; as in crocodiles, there are abdominal ribs on the ventral wall of the abdomen; the wrist bones show no signs of fusion, the primitive number_of ten bones being present. the special peculiarity is the fact that the pineal body of other vertebrates-a curious structure found in the brain, which was long an entire puzzle-here takes the form of a median unpaired eye, which retains traces of the retina, and lies beneath a hole in the bones of the skull. Generally, Sphenodon is a specialized remnant of the stock from which the other existing reptiles arose.

But

Sphenoid Bone, a large and important wedge-shaped bone of the skull, made of several bones ossified into one. See SKULL.

Sphere, in astronomy, the hollow vault of the sky upon which the heavenly bodies are seen projected. Its momentary centre is at the eye of the observer; its surface is conceived to be indefinitely remote. Hence, parallel lines produced to meet it, such as meteor-tracks, or the earth's axis during its annual revolution, converge to a single point. The situations of objects on the sphere are defined by reference to two alternative systems of polar co-ordinates. Aristotle assigned seven spheres, centred on the earth, to the sun, moon, and five planets, and an eighth to the fixed stars; Arab astronomers added a ninth, the 'primum mobile,' exterior to the rest, and imparting to them revolution in twenty-four hours. The purely ideal 'homocentric spheres' of Eudoxus became subsequently materialized into crystalline orbs, finally shattered by the incursion of the comet of 1577 as determined by Tycho Brahé.

Sphere, in mathematics, a surface every point of which is fixed equally distant from a point known as the centre. Every plane section of a sphere is a circle-known as a great cir

cle, if the plane be diametral. Two spheres intersect in a circle whose plane is at right angles to the join of their centres. A sphere may be described through any four points, as a circle may be described through any three. The shortest line in the surface join

Sphere of Influence

ing any two points is an arc of a great circle. Also for a given surface the volume of the sphere is a minimum. The Cartesian equation to the sphere is a particular case of the general equation of the second degree, and is obtained by equating to a constant (the radius) the length of the straight line joining the centre to any point on the surface. Volume of sphere, r3; surface of sphere, 4 = r2.

n

Sphere of Influence, a comparatively modern development of international politics. This and cognate phrases date practically from the Conference of Berlin in 1884. In 1885 arrangements were entered into between Great Britain and Germany, 'relative to their respective spheres of action in portions of New Guinea.' Other similar agreements were made in relation to the British and German spheres of influence in the Western Pacific (1886); between Great Britain and Russia in regard to Lake Victoria and the Pamirs (1895); between Great Britain and France in reference to Siam (1896), Egypt (1899), and Morocco (1904). like manner, after the ChinoJapanese War, the various European powers and Japan established spheres of influence in China. Disputes between Russia and Japan as to the delimitation of their spheres of influence in Manchuria and Korea formed the occasion for the outbreak of hostilities between the two powers in 1904. Mr. W. E. Hall, in his International Law (1904), says the expression indicates 'the regions which, geographically, are adjacent to, or, politically, group themselves naturally with, possessions or protectorates' in which 'control can be exercised with tolerable regularity,' and represents 'an understanding which enables a state to reserve to itself the right of excluding other European powers from territories that are of importance to it, politically, as affording means of future pansion to its existing dominions or protectorates, or strategically, as preventing civilized neighbors from occupying a dominant military position.'

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Spherical Aberration. See ABERRATION; LENSES; and MI

CROSCOPE.

Spherical Harmonics, a mathematical method of great value in the investigation of distributions of attracting and repelling 'matter' (gravitational, electrical, or magnetic), which

act on other distributions of the same kind according to the Newtonian law of the inverse square. The method originated with Laplace, and consists analytically in finding forms of functions of position which satisfy a particu

373

lar differential equation. All such functions are known as potential functions. When found for any region of space, the potential function gives at once, by its rate of change in any direction, the force acting in that direction. Now, just as any simply periodic function can be expanded as a Fourier series, in terms of sines and cosines of successive integral multiples of the variable, each term representing a simple harmonic function, so here any potential function can be expressed as a series of ascending or descending powers of a certain variable, the coefficients being definite, assignable functions of the sines and cosines of the spherical co-ordinates which fix the position of a line in space, say, for example, the latitude and longitude of a point on a spherical surface. Laplace applied the method to the calculation of the attraction of a spheroid like the earth; Gauss made it the basis of his theory of terrestrial magnetism; and important contributions to the theory have been made by Legendre, Kelvin, Dirichlet, Jacobi, and others. See Thomson and Tait's Natural Philosophy (1879), Heine's Kugelfunctionen (187881), Todhunter's Elementary Treatise on Laplace's Functions (1875), and special chapters in Byerly's Fourier's Series and Spherical Harmonics (1895), and in Whittaker's Modern Analysis (1893).

SphericalTriangle and

Spherical Trigonometry. When any three points on a spherical surface are joined by arcs lying wholly on the surface, the arcs form what is called a spherical triangle. Each of the arcs so drawn is always understood to lie in one plane; and, unless there is a statement to the contrary, the planes in which the arcs lie are always understood to pass through the centre of the sphere. In other words, the arcs

ХВ

Spherical Triangle.

o, Centre of sphere.

are parts of great circles. The relations among the arcs, and the angles between each pair of planes containing the arcs, form an important branch of mathematics known as spherical trigonometry. It is indispensable for the astronomer and geodetic sur

Sphinx

veyor. The solution of a spherical triangle can be made to depend on the solution of the right-angled spherical triangle-that is, the triangle two of whose arcual sides lie in perpendicular planes. Thus the spherical triangle ABC may at once be divided into two rightangled spherical triangles by simply drawing through one vertex, say A, a plane perpendicular to the plane BC containing the other two vertices. This will form on the spherical surface an arc AP meeting the arc BC, produced if necessary, in the point P. The triangles APB and APC two right-angled spherical triangles.

are

Spheroid is the surface generated by the rotation of an ellipse about either its major or its minor axis. When the major axis is the axis of rotation, the surface is a prolate spheroid somewhat like an egg. When the minor axis is the axis of rotation, the spheroid is oblate. The figure of the earth is approximately an oblate spheroid. The spheroid is a particular case of the ellipsoid.

Sphex, a genus of fossorial Hymenoptera, belonging to the family Sphegidæ. It has attracted special attention from the peculiar habits, first studied by Fabre. The female excavates horizontal galleries in the soil, usually ten in number, with each of which are connected three or four cells intended for the young. The cells are fully provisioned and closed up, and the whole gallery is abandoned. The provisions consist of three or four large insects, such as cicadas or crickets, which are stung by the wasp in three spots, corresponding to the position of the three chief nervecentres. The result is that the quarry is paralyzed, but not killed. When the sphex larva hatches, it consumes the living crickets. Later, pupation occurs, and the imago emerges from the ground to begin the life history anew.

Sphincter Muscles surround an opening or a short canal (e.g. pupil of eye, mouth, rectum), which they either constrict or close when it contracts, the muscular fibres being arranged in a more or less circular fashion.

Sphinx, in ancient Greek legend, was a monster, which appeared in Boeotia, and killed all the inhabitants who could not solve a riddle which she propounded to them. The riddle was--'What animal is it that has four feet, and two feet, and three feet, and only one voice; yet its feet vary, and when it has most it is weakest ?' Edipus answered rightly, 'Man; for he crawls on all fours as an infant, and in old age moves on his fect and a staff.' Upon this the Sphinx slew herself. The idea of the Sphinx

lion, with a woman's breast and head. See Sophocles's Edipus Tyrannus.

Sphinx. See HAWK-MOTH. Sphygmograph, or PULSOMETER, an instrument for recording the movements of the arterial wall during and between the pulsebeats. The earliest form was invented by Vierovdt and perfected by Marcy, and consists of a lever with an elastic spring, One end of the spring is placed

Dudgeon's Sphygmograph.

on the radial artery, and has above it a rack and pinion attached to a lever. The other end of the lever carries a style, which records on a moving smoked plate the movements of the vessel wall.

The Egyptian Sphinx at Gizeh.

ment is Dudgeon's sphygmograph, in which clock work moves a strip of smoked paper below a style attached to a spring that rests on the radial artery. The writing levers are so adjusted that the movements of the arterial wall are magnified fifty times. Besides yielding much valuable information about the frequency, strength, and regularity of the cardiac pulsations, the sphygmograph records the tension of the pulse, which is often altered by morbid changes in the blood pressure and in the vessel walls.

Spica (a Virginis), in astronomy, a helium star of 1.2 magnitude, representing the ear of wheat held by the zodiacal Virgin. Vogel discovered it in 1890 to be a spectroscopic binary, revolving in four days round a semi-obscure companion.

Spica. See BANDAGE.

Spice Islands. See MOLUCCAS. Spices, vegetable products with a definite and pronounced taste used for adding flavors to simpler foods, usually to articles of food which contain sugar. They are distinguished from condiments, which are commonly used with meat or meat substitutes, or with

Spicheren, vil., Lorraine, Prussia, 3 m. s. of Saarbrück, Iwas the scene of a defeat of the French under Frossard by the Germans, Aug. 6, 1870.

Spider. The spiders constitute the specialized order Araneida of the class Arachnida. The specialization, as compared with the scorpion, is shown in the absence of apparent segmentation, and in the shortening of the body, which consists of an anterior cephalothorax, separated by a constriction from the large, rounded abdomen. The appendages of the cephalothorax consist

Normal Pulse Curve.

of two small cheliceræ close to the mouth, which here contain the poison gland used in obtaining prey; the pedipalps, or

Spider-crab

second pair of appendages, which are not chelate at the extremity; and four pairs of walking legs. On the ventral surface of the abdomen in most spiders are the openings of a pair of lung-sacs, but a few have two pairs of these structures. In most spiders there are also present tracheal tubes comparable to those of insects; the spiders therefore illustrate the transition between these two modes of breathing. The other structural peculiarities include the spinnerets at the end of the abdomen; these are little tubercles perforated by a great number of holes, through which exudes the silk of which the web is made. The mouth is minute, as is also the lumen of the alimentary canal; for the spider does not take solid food, but feeds upon animal juices. The nervous system shows much specialization, and there are numerous eyes on the head region. The sexes are separate, the males being smaller than the females. The prey is usually entangled in the web or lures, and killed by the poison glands of the cheliceræ. The

web is very varied in shape and structure. The orb form is well seen in that of the common garden spider, where there is a wellmarked difference between the radial lines which form the scaffolding of the web and the viscid circular ones which catch the insects. Other species use the silk to make snares or traps (cf. the trap-door spider). Another interesting point is the frequency of what is known as protective coloration among spiders. There are a very large number of spiders, the majority of which have two lung-sacs, while relatively few (like Mygale, the bird-catching spider) have four. See M'Cook's American Spiders and their Spinning Work (1890-4), Moggridge's Trapdoor Spiders (1872), Thorell's European Spiders (1870), and Camb. Nat. Hist., vol. iv. (1905). Spider-crab. See CRAB. Spider-monkey (Ateles), a

Spiders.

1. Garden spider (Epetra diadema) and web. 2. Spinneret of spider. 3. Enlarged view of spiral thread of web, showing viscid globules. 4. Trap-door spider. 5. Lycosa tarantula. 6. Thomisus foka. 7. Latrodectus Menavodi. 8. Platform web of house spider. 9. House spider (Tegenaria domestica). 10. Segestria perfua. 11. Tetragnatha sailing by means of loose webs. 12. Water spider and nest. 13. Gasteracantha cancriformis. 14. Foot of garden spider, showing combs' for clinging to web.

coaita, in which the fur is black, while the naked parts of the face are reddish. This monkey is readily tamed, and is a favorite S. American pet. There are a considerable number of other species, all purely arboreal in habits, and remarkable for their extreme agility.

smelting manganiferous iron ores in a blast furnace. When broken, it forms large crystalline plates of very lustrous appearance, from which it derives its name. It is used to add to the molten pure iron of the Bessemer and open-hearth processes in order to obtain steels. Spielhagen, FRIEDRICH (1829),