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# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Saragossa (province)

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​SARAGOSSA (Zaragoza), an inland province of northern Spain, one of the three into which Aragon was divided in 1833; bounded on the N. by Logrofio and Navarre, N.E. and E. by Huesca, S.E. by Lérida and Tarragona, S. by Teruel and Guadalajara and W. by Soria. Pop. (1900) 421,843; area, 6726 sq. m. Saragossa belongs wholly to the basin of the Ebro (q.v.). The main valley is bounded on the south-west by the Sierra de Moncayo (with the highest elevation in the province, 7707 ft.), and is continued in a south-easterly direction by the lower sierras of La Virgen and Vicor; on the north-west are the spurs of the Pyrenees. The principal tributaries of the Ebro within the province are the Jalón (q.v.), Huerva and Aguas on the right and the Arba and Gallego on the left; the Aragon also, which flows principally through Navarre, has part of its course in the north of this province. At its lowest point, where the Ebro quits it, Saragossa is only 105 ft. above sea-level. There are large tracts of barren land, but where water is abundant the soil is fertile; its chief productions are wheat, rye, barley, oats, hemp, flax, oil and wine. Silkworms are bred; and on the higher grounds sheep are reared. The manufactures are less important than the agricultural interests. Since 1885, however, the Aragonese have bestirred themselves, especially since the extremely protectionist policy of 1890 gave great impetus to native industries all over Spain. The industries include iron founding and manufactures of paper, leather, soap, brandies, liqueurs, machinery, carriages of all sorts, railway material, pianos, beds, glass, bronze, chocolate, jams and woollen and linen goods. Much timber is obtained from the Pyrenean forests; the chief exports are live stock, excellent wines, flour, oil and fruit. The province contains important mineral resources, the bulk of which, however, await development.
Saragossa is traversed by the Ebro Valley Railway which connects Miranfa with Lérida, Barcelona and Tarragona, and has a branch to Huesca; it also communicates via Calatayud with Madrid and Sagunto; and there are local lines to Carinena (south-west' from Saragossa) and to Tarazona and Borja (near the right bank of the Ebro). The only towns with upwards of 5000 inhabitants in 1900 were Saragossa (99,118)and Calatayud (11,526) (see separate articles); Tarazona (8790), an episcopal see, with a curious 13th-century cathedral; Caspe (7735); and Borja (5701), the original home of the celebrated family of Borgia (q.v.). (For an account of the imperial canal, and of the inhabitants and history of this region, see Aragon.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Saran

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​SARAN, a district of British India, in the Tirhut division of Bengal. Area, 2674 sq. m. It is a vast alluvial plain, possessing scarcely any undulations, but with a general inclination towards the south-east, as indicated by the flow of the rivers in that direction. The principal rivers, besides the Ganges, are the Gandak and Gogra, which are navigable throughout the year. The district has long been noted for its high state of cultivation. It yields large crops of rice, besides other cereals, pulses, oil seeds, poppy, indigo and sugar-cane.
The population in 1901 was 2,409,509, showing a decrease of 2.2%, compared with an increase of 7.4% in the previous decade. The average density of population, 901 per square mile, is the highest rate for all India. The indigo industry, formerly of the first importance, has declined, and sugar refining has in great part taken its place. Some saltpetre is produced, and shellac is manufactured. Saran is exposed to drought and flood. It suffered from the famine of 1874, and again in 1896–1899. An irrigation scheme from the river Gandak, started in 1878, proved a failure, after a capital expenditure of Rs. 7,000,000. The Bengal North-Western railway runs through the south of the district. The administrative headquarters are at Chapra.
See Saran District Gazetteer (Calcutta, 1908).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sarapul

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​SARAPUL, a town of N. Russia, in the government of Vyatka, on the river Kama, 333 m. by river E.N.E. of Kazan and 266 m. S.W. of Perm. Pop. (1855) 12,367; (1897) 21,395. Boots, shoes and gloves are manufactured, the first-named being mostly exported to Siberia, Caucasia and Turkestan. It has also tanneries, flax mills, distilleries, ironworks and rope-works, and is a busy river-port, trafficking in corn and timber. There are a lace-making school and a municipal library.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sarasuati

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SARASUATI, in early Hindu mythology, a river-goddess; in later myths the wife of Brahma, goddess of wisdom and science, mother of the Vedas, and inventor of the Devanagari letters. There has been much dispute as to the stream of which she is a personification. Some have identified it with the Avestan river, Haragaiti, in Afghanistan, while others think the term a general one for any great river, and in particular the sacred name for the Indus, Sindhu being the popular one.
Two small but sacred rivers in India are still called Saraswati, one in the Punjab and the other in Gujarat, both of which ultimately lose themselves in the sand. According to one legend, the Punjab river reappears to unite with the Ganges and Jumna at Allahabad. From this river is derived the name of the Sarswat Brahmans, the most numerous and influential of the priestly class in the Punjab, with whom the Gaur Sarswats or Shenvis of the Konkan claim connexion.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Saragossa, Councils of

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​SARAGOSSA, COUNCILS OF (Concilia Caesaraugustana). In or about 380 a council of Spanish and Aquitanian bishops adopted at Saragossa eight canons bearing more or less directly on the prevalent heresy of Priscillianism. A second council, held in 592, solved practical problems incident to the recent conversion of the West Goths from Arianism to orthodox Christianity. The third council, in 691, issued five canons on discipline. In 1318 a provincial synod proclaimed the elevation of Saragossa to the rank of an archbishopric; and from September 1565 to February 1566 a similar synod made known the decrees of Trent.
H. T. Bruns, Canones apostolorum et conciliorum saeculorum iv., v., vi., vii., pars altera (Berlin, 1839); P. B. Gams, Die Kircheneschichte von Spanien (Regensburg, 1862–1879). (W. W. R.*)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sarasin, Jean François

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​SARASIN, or Sarrazin, JEAN FRANÇOIS (1611?–1654), French author, son of Roger Sarasin, treasurer-general at Caen, was born at Hermanville near Caen. He was educated at Caen, and settled in Paris. As a writer of vers de société he rivalled Voiture, but he was never admitted to the inner circle of the hôtel de Rambouillet. He was on terms of intimate friendship with Scarron, with whom he exchanged verses, with Ménage, and with Pellisson. In 1639 he supported Georges de Scudéry in his attack on Corneille with a Discours de la tragédie, He accompanied Léon Bouthillier, comte de Chavigny, secretary of state for foreign affairs, on various diplomatic errands. He was to have been sent on an embassy to Rome, but spent the money allotted for the purpose in Paris. This weakened his position with Chavigny, from whom he parted in the winter of 1643–1644. To restore his fallen fortunes he married a rich widow, but the alliance was of short duration. He joined in the pamphlet war against Pierre de Montmaur, against whom he directed his satire, Bellum parasiticum (1644). He was accused of writing satires on Mazarin, and for a short time gave up the practice of verse. In 1648, supported, by the cardinal ​de Retz and Madame de Longueville, he entered the household of Armand de Bourbon, prince de Conti, whose marriage with Mazarin's niece he helped to negotiate. He died of fever at Pézénas, in Languedoc on the 5th of December 1654. His biographers have variously stated on inadequate evidence that his death was caused by the prince de Conti in a moment of passion, or that he was poisoned by a jealous husband. The most considerable of his poems were the epic fragments of Rollon conquérant, la guerre espagnole, with Dulot vaincu and the Pompe funèbre in honour of Voiture. As a poet he was overrated, but he was the author of two excellent pieces of prose narration, the Histoire du siége de Dunkerque (1649) and the unfinished Conspiration de Walstein (1651). The Walstein has been compared for elegance and simplicity of style to Voltaire’s Charles XII.
His Œuvres appeared in 1656, Nouvelles Œuvres (2 vols.) in 1674. His Poésies were edited in 1877 by Octave Uzanne' with an introductory note. Much of his correspondence is preserved in the library of the Arsenal, Paris. See Albert Mennung’s Jean François Sarasins Leben und Werke (2 vols., Halle, 1902–1904).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Saracens

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SARACENS, the current designation among the Christians in the middle ages for their Moslem enemies, especially for the Moslems in Europe. In earlier times the name Saraceni was applied by Greeks and Romans to the nomad Arabs of the Syro-Arabian desert who harassed the frontier of the empire. Σαρακηνή, a district in the Sinaitic peninsula, is mentioned by Ptolemy (v. 16). Its inhabitants, though unknown to Arab tradition, made themselves notorious in the adjacent Roman provinces. Thus all Bedouins in that region came to be called Saraceni, in Aramaic Sarkaje, usually with no very favourable meaning. The latter form occurs in a dialogue concerning Fate written about A.D. 210 by a pupil of Bardesanes (Cureton, Spicilegium Syriacum, 16 ult.). The appellation then became general, and occurs frequently in Ammianus Marcellinus. The name “Saracen” continued to be used in the West in later times, probably rather through the influence of literature than by oral tradition, and was applied to all Arabs, even to all Moslems.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Petty-Officer

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​PETTY-OFFICER, the title in the navy of a large number of minor (Fr. petit, small) officers, of less than commissioned or warrant rank-such as the master-at-arms, sail maker, caulker, armourer, cook, &c. They were originally named, and removable, by the captain.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pettie, John

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​PETTIE, JOHN (1839–1893), Scottish painter, was born in Edinburgh on the 17th of March 1839, the son of Alexander and Alison Pettie. In 1852 the family removed to East Linton, Haddingtonshire, and a portrait by the lad of the village carrier and his donkey overcame his father's objections to art as a career for his son. When sixteen he entered the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh, working under Robert Scott Lauder with W. Q. Orchardson, J. MacWhirter, W. M'Taggart, Peter Graham, Tom Graham and G. P. Chalmers. His first exhibits at the Royal Scottish Academy were "A Scene from the Fortunes of Nigel"—one of the many subjects for which he sought inspiration in the novels of Sir Walter Scott—and two portraits in 1858, followed in 1859 by "The Prison Pet." To the Royal Academy in 1860 he sent "The Armourers"; and the success of this work and or "What d'ye Lack, Madam?" in the following year, encouraged him to settle in London (1862), where he joined Orchardson. In 1866 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and in 1874 received full academical honours in succession to Sir Edwin Landseer. His diploma picture was "Jacobites, 1745." Pettie was a hard and rapid worker, and, in his best days, a colourist of a high order and a brilliant executant. In his early days he produced a certain amount of book illustration. His Connexion with Good Words began in 1861, and was continued till 1864. With J MacWhirter he illustrated The Postman's Bag (Strahan, 1862), and Wordsworth's Poetry for the Young (Strahan, 1863). His principal paintings, in addition to those already mentioned, are "Cromwell's Saints" (1862), "The Trio" (1863); "George Fox refusing to take the Oath" (1864); "A Drumhead Courtmartial" (1865); "The Arrest for Witchcraft" (1866);"Treason" (1867, now in the Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield); "Tussle with a Highland Smuggler" (1868); "The Sally" (1870); "Terms to the Besieged" (1872); "The Flag of Truce" (1873); "Ho! Ho! Old Noll" and "A State Secret" (1874); "A Sword and Dagger Fight" (1877); "The Death Warrant" (1879); "Monmouth and James II" (1882); "The Vigil" (1884, in the Chantrey Collection, National Gallery of British Art); "Challenged" (1885), "The Chieftain's Candlesticks" (1886); "Two Strings to Her Bow" (1887); "The Traitor" and "Sir Charles Wyndham as David Garrick" (1888), and "The Ultimatum" and "Bonnie Prince Charlie" (1892). Pettie died at Hastings on the 21st of February 1893. In 1894 a selection of his work was included in the Winter Exhibition of the Royal Academy. His portrait by himself is in the Tate Gallery.
John Pettie, R. A. (London, 1908), by his nephew Martin Hardie, gives the story of his life, a catalogue of his pictures, and fifty reproductions in colours.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Petticoat

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​PETTICOAT, an underskirt, as part of a woman's dress. The petticoat, i.e. "petty-coat" or small coat, was originally a short garment for the upper part of the body worn under an outer dress; in the Promptorium parvulorum the Latin equivalent is tunicula. It was both a man's and a woman's garment, and was in the first case worn as a small coat under the doublet and by women apparently as a kind of chemise. It was however, early applied to the skirt worn by women hanging from the waist, Whether as the principal lower garment or as an underskirt. In the middle of the 17th century the wide breeches with heavy lace or embroidered ends worn by men were known as "petticoat breeches," a term also applied to the loose canvas or oilskin overalls worn by fishermen.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Petunia

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​PETUNIA, in botany, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Solanaceae and containing about 16 species, chiefly South American (southern Brazil and Argentina). The garden forms are derived from the white-flowered P. nyctaginiflora and the violet- or purple-flowered P. violacea. The varieties of petunia, especially the double forms, make admirable specimens for pot culture.
Named or specially fine varieties are propagated by cuttings taken from stock plants kept through the winter on a dry warm shelf, and moved into a brisk moist heat in early spring; the young shoots are planted in pans or pots filled with sandy soil, and, aided by a brisk bottom heat, strike root in a few days. They are then potted singly into thumb-pots and when once established are gradually hardened off, and afterwards repotted as required. The shoots should be topped to make bushy plants, and their tops may be utilized as cuttings. The single varieties are raised from seeds sown in light sandy soil in heat, in the early spring, and very slightly covered. The plants need to be pricked out or potted off as soon as large enough to handle. Good strains of seeds supply plants suitable for bedding; but, as they do not reproduce themselves exactly, any sorts particularly required must be propagated, like the double ones, from cuttings.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Scale Insect

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​SCALE INSECT, a name given to insects belonging to the family Coccidae of the homopterous division of the Hemiptera and deriving their name from the formation by the females of a waxy secretion which often hardens into a protective scale beneath which the insects live. Honey-dew, a sweet sticky substance is also secreted by some members of the family. The females are always wingless, but are provided with antennae, legs and well-developed mouth-parts. In some cases these organ; are retained, in some they are lost in the encysted condition. The males, on the contrary, although sometimes wingless, are, as a rule, provided with a pair of large forewings and greatly reduced hindwings; their antennae and legs are longer than in the other sex, but the mouth-parts are reduced and functionless (see Economic Entomology).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Scammony

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​SCAMMONY, a plant, Convolvulus scammonia (Gr. σκαμωνία), native to the countries of the eastern part of the Mediterranean basin; it grows in bushy waste places, from Syria in the south to the Crimea in the north, its range extending westward to the Greek islands, but not to northern Africa or Italy. It is a twining perennial, bearing flowers like those of Convolvulus arvensis, and having irregularly arrow-shaped leaves and a thick fleshy root. The dried juice, “virgin scammony,” obtained by incision of the living root, has been used in medicine as scammonium, but the variable quality of the drug has led to the employment of scammoniae resina, which is obtained from the dried root by digestion with alcohol.
The active principle is the glucoside scammonin or jalapin, C$_{34}$H$_{56}$O$_{16}$. The dose of scammonium is 5 to 10 grains, of scammony resin 3 to 8 grains. Like certain other resins, scammony is inert until it has passed from the stomach into the duodenum, where it meets the bile, a chemical reaction occurring between it and the taurocholate and glycocholate of sodium, whereby it is converted into a powerful purgative. Its action is essentially that of a hydragogue, and is exercised upon practically the entire length of the alimentary canal. The drug is not a cholagogue, nor does it markedly affect the muscular coat of the bowel, but it causes a great increase of secretion from the intestinal glands. It acts in about four hours. In large doses it is, of course, a violent gastro-intestinal irritant. In consonance with the statement that scammony acts only after admixture with the bile, is the fact that hypodermic or intravenous injection of the drug produces no purgation, or indeed any other result. The drug frequently kills both the round-worm and the tape-worm, especially the former, and is therefore an anthelmintic. It is not largely used, but is very effective in the treatment of severe constipation, especially in children.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Scamp

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​SCAMP, an idle, worthless rascal; in earlier (18th cent.) usage especially applied as a cant term for a highway robber, a foot-pad, later of one who incurs debts and decamps without paying them. The word appears to be derived from a shortened form of “scamper,” to run away, decamp, to move quickly or nimbly; which is generally taken to be a military slang word adapted from Dutch schampen, to escape; O. Fr. escamper; Ital. scampare; Lat. ex, out of, campus, field of battle, hence a vagabond deserter. This word must be distinguished from “scamp,” to do work in a hasty, careless manner, which is apparently a variant of “skimp,” “skimpy,” and is to be referred to the root seen in O. Nor. skammr, short; Eng. “scant.”
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Scandal

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​SCANDAL, disgrace, discredit, shame, caused by the report or knowledge of wrongdoing, hence defamation or gossip, especially malicious or idle; or such action as causes public offence or disrepute. (For the law relating to scandal, more generally termed “defamation” see Libel and Slander.) The Greek word σκάνδαλον, stumbling-block, cause of offence or temptation, is used in the Septuagint and the New Testament. Classical Greek had the word σκανδάληθρον only, properly the spring of a baited trap; the origin probably being the root seen in Latin scandere, to climb, get up. While the Latin scandalum has given such direct derivatives as Spanish and Portuguese escandalo, Dutch schandaal, Eng. “scandal,” &c., it is also the source of the synonymous “slander,” Middle Eng. sclaundre, O. Fr. esclandre, escandle.
A particular form of defamation was scandalum magnatum, “slander of great men,” words, that is, spoken defaming a peer spiritual or temporal, judge or dignitary of the realm. Action lay for such defamation under the statutes of 3 Edw. I. c. 34, 2 Rich. II. c. 5, and 12 Rich. II. c. 11 whereby damages could be recovered, even in cases where no action would lie, if the defamation were of an ordinary subject, and that without proof of special damage. These statutes, though long obsolete, were only abolished in 1887 (Statute Law Revision Act).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Scamilli Impares

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​SCAMILLI IMPARES (“unequal steps,” Fr. escabeaux inégales; Ger. Schutzstege), in architecture, a term quoted by Vitruvius when referring to the rise given to the stylobate in the centre of the front and sides of a Greek temple. His explanation is not clear; he states (iii. 4) that, if set out level, the stylobate would have the appearance of being sunk in the centre, so that it is necessary that there should be an addition by means of small steps (scamilli impares). In book v. chap. 9, he again refers to the addition on the stylobate. The interpretation of his meaning by Penrose and other authorities is generally assumed to be the addition which it was necessary to leave on the lower frusta of the Doric column, or on the lower portion of the base of the Ionic column, so as to give them a proper bearing on the curved surface of the stylobate; when levelling ground, however, it is sometimes the custom to fix at intervals small bricks or tiles which are piled up until the upper surfaces of all of them are absolutely level. If, as an alternative, these piles were so arranged as to rise towards the centre, instead of a level a slightly curved surface might be obtained, and the term “unequal steps” would apply to them. This was the opinion of M. Bernouf, a French author, who points out that scamillus is a diminutive of scamnum, a small step (Fr. petit banc), which in some parts of France is employed when levelling the surface of areas or courts. According to Penrose the rise of the curved stylobate of the Parthenon had already been obtained in the stereobate carrying it, long before the problem of bedding the columns on the curve had arisen.