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# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Turnhout

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​TURNHOUT, a town of Belgium, in the province of Antwerp, 26 m. N.E. of that city. Pop. (1904), 22,162. It carries on an active industry in cloth and other manufactures. There is a breeding establishment for leeches. The hôtel de ville was formerly a palace of the dukes of Brabant. Two miles west of Turnhout is the curious penal or reformatory colony of Merxplas (pop. in 1904, 2827). The system of this establishment is to allow certain approved prisoners to follow their usual occupations within a defined area. The persons detained have complete liberty of movement, subject to the two conditions that they are under the supervision of guardians and are not allowed to cross the boundaries of the settlement. They also wear a distinct dress, and each prisoner bears a number.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Turnpike

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​TURNPIKE, a pike or pointed bar or stake which turns or revolves, hence the name given to a form of barrier consisting of three or more horizontal bars, with one end sharpened, revolving on a pivot. Such barriers were used across roads, and, when tolls were exacted from passengers along highways to raise the money for the upkeep of the roads, the name, though not the form, was given both to the toll-gates set up at different places where the tolls were collected, and to the highways repaired under the system (see Highway).
A “turnstile,” consisting of a vertical post with projecting, revolving arms, is another form of barrier, placed by the side of a gate across a road, or across a path to prevent the passage of all except foot passengers, or at the entrance to any building, park or other place as a means of controlling the admission of people, of collecting admission money and the like.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Turner, Sharon

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​TURNER, SHARON (1768–1847), English historian, was born in Pentonville, London, on the 24th of September 1768. His parents came from Yorkshire. He was educated at a private school kept by Dr Davis in Pentonville, and was article to a solicitor in the Temple in 1783, and when his master died in 1789 he continued the business. He remained in business at first in the Temple in 1783, and later in Red Lion Square till 1829, when failing health compelled him to retire. He settled for a time at Winchmore Hill, but afterwards returned to London, and died in his son’s house on the 13th of February 1847. In early boyhood he had been attracted by a translation of the “Death Song of Ragnar Lodbrok,” and was led by this boyish interest to make a study of early English history in Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic sources. He devoted all the time he could spare from his business to the study of the Anglo-Saxon documents in the British Museum. The material was abundant and had hitherto been neglected. When the first volume of his History of England from the earliest times to the Norman Conquest appeared in 1799, it was at once recognized as a work of equal novelty and value. The fourth volume appeared in 1805. He also published a continuation (History of England during the Middle Ages), a Modern History of England, a Sacred History of the World, and a volume on Richard III. (1845), and he was the author of pamphlets on the copyright laws (1813).
His son, Sydney Turner (1814–1879), educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, took orders, was known as a strong partisan of reformatory schools, and died rector of Hempstead in Gloucestershire.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Turner, Sir James

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​TURNER, SIR JAMES (1615–1686), Scottish soldier and military writer, was educated with a view to his entering the Church, but early showed his preference for the profession of arms by enlisting in the Swedish army, then the most famous training-school in Europe. He saw considerable service in the Thirty Years’ War, and in 1640 returned to Scotland as a captain. It was not long before he secured employment, and as a major he accompanied the Scottish army in its invasion of England in the same year, successfully avoiding the imposition of the “Covenant” as a test. With Lord Sinclair’s regiment Major Turner served in Ulster, and subsequently, after failing to join Montrose’s army, accompanied the Scottish army until Naseby practically ended the Civil War. Turner was often with Charles I. during his detention at Leslie’s headquarters, and continually urged him to escape. Up to this time he had served against the king, but always with some repugnance, and he had welcomed the opportunity when in 1648 the cause of the king and the interests of the Scottish nation for the moment coincided. In the disastrous campaign which followed Turner was at Hamilton’s headquarters, and it was owing to the neglect of his advice that the rout of Preston took place. Taken in the final surrender at Uttoxeter, he spent some time in captivity, but in 1649 was released and sent abroad. He was unable for want of means to reach Montrose in time to join in the final venture of the noblest of the Royalist commanders, but he landed in Scotland on the day before Dunbar, and in the grave crisis that followed was a welcome ally. As a colonel and adjutant-general of foot he was with Charles II. at Worcester. In that battle he was captured, but regained his liberty, and after many adventures escaped to the Continent, where he was for some years he was engaged in various Royalist intrigues, conspiracies and attempted insurrections. At the Restoration he was knighted, and in 1662 he became a major in the Royal Guards. Four years later, as a district commander in Scotland, he was called upon to deal severely with Covenanter disturbances. Though not, it appears, unjust, his dragooning methods eventually led to his being deprived of his command. The rest of his life was spent in retirement. A pension was granted to him by James II. in 1685. In 1683 he had published his Pallas armata, Military Essayes of the Ancient Grecian, Roman and Modern Art of War, one of the most valuable authorities for the history of military sciences.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Skagerrack

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​SKAGERRACK, the arm of the North Sea which gives access to the Cattegat and so to the Baltic. It is about 140 m. long and 75 broad. On the Danish shore, which is low and beset with sand-banks, the strait is shallow. Towards the steep Norwegian coast its deepest part is found, 443 fathoms.
For the currents, temperature and salinity of the water, &c., see North Sea.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Skeffington, Sir William

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​SKEFFINGTON, SIR WILLIAM (c. 1463–1535), lord deputy of Ireland, belonged to a Leicestershire family and was sheriff of Leicestershire and Warwickshire under Henry VII. He was master of the ordnance and a member of parliament during the reign of Henry VIII., and in 1529 was appointed deputy in Ireland for Henry's son, the duke of Richmond, the nominal lord lieutenant of that country. He crossed over in August 1529, but his power was so circumscribed by instructions from Henry that the head of the Fitzgeralds, Gerald, 9th earl of Kildare, and not Skefnngton, was the real governor of Ireland. This state of affairs lasted for three years and then in 1532 the deputy was recalled. In 1534, Kildare being in prison in England and his son Thomas, afterwards the 10th earl, being in revolt, Skeffington was again appointed deputy. After some delay he landed at Dublin in October 1534 and marched at once to relieve Drogheda, but further progress in the work of crushing the rebellion was seriously delayed by his illness. However, in the spring of 1535 he was again in the field. He took Maynooth, the heavy artillery used by him on this occasion earning for him his surname of " the gunner "; he forced some of Kildare's allies to make peace and he captured Dungarvan. He died on the 31st of December 1535.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Size

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​SIZE, a general term for bulk or quantity; also an agglutinant consisting of undried glue. The two words, though they are so widely separate in meaning, are by etymology the same. “Size” (Lat. assidere, to sit down to) is a shortened form of “assize,” through the French and Italian respectively. The O. Fr. assis, assise, and Eng. “assize,” meant a sitting of a deliberative or other body; hence decree, ordinance of such a body, specifically of such as regulated weights, measures, prices; thus it came to mean a standard of measure price, quantity thus fixed, and so merely quantity or measure, in which sense it remains in the shortened form “size.” In the sense of an agglutinant, “size” is an adaptation of Ital. sisa, a shortened form of assisa (Lat. assidere), and seems to have meant by derivation “that which painters use to make the colours sit well or suitably.”
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Skeat, Walter William

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​SKEAT, WALTER WILLIAM (1835–), English philologist, was born in London on the 21st of November 1835, and educated at King's College, Highgate Grammar School, and Christ's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in July 1860. In 1878 he was elected Ellington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Cambridge. He completed Mitchell Kemble's edition of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels, and did much other work both in Anglo-Saxon and in Gothic, but is perhaps most generally known for his labours in Middle English, and for his standard editions of Chaucer and Piers Plowman (see Langland) As he himself generously declared, he was at first mainly guided in the study of Chaucer by Henry Bradshaw, with whom he was to have participated in the edition of Chaucer planned in 1870 by the University of Oxford, having declined in Bradshaw's favour an offer of the editorship made to himself. Bradshaw's perseverance was not equal to his genius, and the scheme came to nothing for the time, but was eventually resumed and carried into effect by Skeat in an edition of six volumes (1894), a supplementary volume of Chaucerian Pieces being published in 1897. He also issued an edition of Chaucer in one volume for general readers, and a separate edition of his Treatise on the Astrolabe, with a learned commentary. His edition of Piers Plowman in three parallel texts was published in 1886; and, besides the Treatise on the Astrolabe, he edited numerous books for the Early English Text Society, including the Bruce of John Barbour, the romances of Havelock the Dane and William of Palerne, and Ælfric's Lives of the Saints (4 vols.). For the Scottish Text Society he edited The Kingis Quair, usually ascribed to James I. of Scotland, and he published an edition (2 vols., 1871) of Chatterton, with an investigation of the sources ​of the obsolete words employed by him. In pure philology Skeat's principal achievement is his Etymological English Dictionary (4 parts, 1879–1882; rev. and enlarged, 1910), the most important of all his works, which must be considered in connexion with the numerous publications of the English Dialect Society, in all of which, even when not edited by himself, he had a hand as the founder of the society and afterwards its president.
His other works include: Specimens of English from 1394 to 1597 (1871); Specimens of Early English from 1298 to 1393 (1872), in conjunction with R. Morris; Principles of English Etymology (2 series, 1887 and 1891); A Concise Dictionary of Middle English (1888), in conjunction with A. L. Mayhew; A Student's Pastime (1896), a volume of essays; The Chaucer Canon (1900); A Primer of Classical and English Philology (1905), &c, &c.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Skegness

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​SKEGNESS, a seaside resort in the S. Lindsey, or Horncastle parliamentary division of Lincolnshire, England; 131 m. N. by E. from London by the Great Northern railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 2140. Since 1873, when railway connexion was given with Firsby on the Grimsby branch line, the place has undergone a complete transformation, and now possesses good hotels and a pier. There are broad, firm sands, on which account Skegness is much visited. On bank holidays and similar occasions thousands of excursionists come from the manufacturing towns within reach. It is said that a former Skegness, an important haven, was obliterated by the encroachments of the sea; Leland, writing in the middle of the 16th century, states that proofs of this were then extant.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Skagway

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​SKAGWAY (a native name said to mean “home of the north wind”), a city in S.E. Alaska, in lat. 59° 28′ N. and long. 135° 20′ W., at the mouth of the river Skagway, on an indentation of Taiya Inlet, a branch of Chilkoot Inlet, leading out of Lynn Canal. Pop. (1900) 3117. It is the seaward terminus of the Yukon & White Pass railway, by which goods and passengers reach the Klondike; and is connected with Dawson by telegraph and with Seattle by cable, and with Seattle, San Francisco and other Pacific ports by steamers. The climate is comparatively dry (annual precipitation about 21·75 in.); between 1898 and 1902 the minimum recorded temperature was 10° (March), the maximum 92° (July), and the greatest monthly range 73° (March). Though settled somewhat earlier, Skagway first became important during the rush in 1896 for the Klondike gold-fields, for which it is the most convenient entrance by the trail over White Pass, the lower of the two passes to the ​headwaters of the Yukon. A post-office was established here in November 1897.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Skarga, Piotr

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​SKARGA, PIOTR (1532-1612), Polish writer and reformer, was born at Grojec near Warsaw in 1532. He was a member of the noble Pawenski family, but his pseudonym of Skarga (from “skarga” a “complaint” or “accusation”) speedily superseded his real name. Educated at Grojec and Cracow, he began life as a tutor to the family of Andrew Tenczynski, castellan of Cracow, and, some years later, after a visit to Vienna, took orders, and from 1563 was attached to the cathedral church of Lemberg. His oratory was so successful that he determined to become a missionary-preacher among the people, in order the better to combat the social and political evils of the day. By way of preparation he studied theology in Italy from 1568 to 1570, and finally entered the Society of Jesus. On his return he preached successively at Pultusk, Jaroslaw and Plock under the powerful protection of Queen Anne Jagielonika. During a subsequent mission to Lithuania he converted numerous noble families, including the Radziwills, and held for some years the rectorship of the Jesuit Academy at Wilna, where he composed his Lives of the Saints. In 1384 he was transferred to the new Jesuit College at Cracow. He was protected by the valiant Stephen Báthory, and the first act of the pious Sigismund III., on ascending the Polish throne, was to make Skarga his court preacher, an office he held for twenty-four years (1588-1611). With perfect fearlessness and piercing eloquence, he rebuked the sloth, the avarice, and the lawlessness of the diets which were doing their best to make government in Poland impossible. Sometimes, as for instance during the insurrection of Zebrzydowski, Skarga intervened personally in politics, and on the side of order and decency, for his loyalty to the crown was as unquestionable as his devotion to the Church. Wearied out at last, he begged to be relieved of his office of preacher, quitted the court, and resided for the last few months of his life at Cracow, where he died on the 27th of September 1612.
The most important of his works are: Lives of the Saints (Wilna, 1579, 27th edition, 1884); Sermons on Sundays and Saints' Days (1st ed., Cracow, 1595, Latin ed., Cracow, 1691); Sermons preached before the Diet (last and best edition, Cracow, 1904) and numerous other volumes of sermons, some of which have already run through thirty editions. Of less importance are his very numerous polemical works, though his famous book On the Unity of the Church of God (1st edition, Wilna, 1577) directed against the dissenters, especially the Greek Orthodox schismatics, will always have an historical interest.
See Izydor Dzieduszycki, Peter Skarga and his Age. (Pol.) (Cracow, 1850-1851). (R. N. B.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sperm-Whale

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​SPERM-WHALE, or Cachalot (Physeter macrocephalus), the largest representative of the toothed whales, its length and bulk being about equal to, or somewhat exceeding those of the Arctic right-whale, from which, however, it is very different in appearance and structure. The head is about one-third of the length of the body, very massive, high and truncated in front; and owing its size and form mainly to the accumulation of a peculiarly modified form of fatty tissue in the large hollow on the upper surface of the skull. The oil contained in cells in this cavity, when refined, yields spermaceti, and the thick covering of blubber, which everywhere envelopes the body, produces the valuable sperm-oil of commerce. The single blowhole is a longitudinal slit, placed at the upper and anterior extremity of the head to the left side of the middle line. The opening of the mouth is on the under side of the head, considerably behind the end of the snout. The lower jaw is extremely narrow, and has on each side from twenty to twenty-five stout conical teeth, which furnish ivory of good quality, though not in sufficient bulk for most of the purposes for which that article is required. The upper teeth are rudimentary and buried in the gum. The flipper is short, broad, and truncated, and the dorsal fin a mere low protuberance. The general colour of the surface is black above and grey below, the colours gradually shading into each other. The sperm-whale is one of the most widely distributed of animals, being met with, usually in herds or “schools,” in almost all tropical and subtropical seas, and occasionally visiting the northern seas, a number having been killed around the Shetlands a few years ago. The food of sperm-whales consists mainly of squid and cuttlefish, but also comprises fish of considerable size. The substance called “ambergris,” formerly used in medicine and now in perfumery, is a concretion formed in the intestine of this whale, and found floating on the surface of the sea. Its genuineness is proved by the presence of the horny beaks of the cuttles on which the whale feeds. The one representative of the genus Cogia is called the lesser or pigmy sperm whale, being only from 9 ft. to 13 ft. long.
The Sperm-Whale (Physeter macrocephalus).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Spessart

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​SPESSART, a highland forest country of Germany, belonging mainly to the Bavarian province of Lower Franconia, but in the north to the Prussian province of Hesse Cassel, and it is bounded on the S. and W. by the Main, on the E. by the Sinn and on the N. by the Kinzig and Joss. The main ridge of the formation, consisting of gneiss, granite and red sandstone, runs from a point opposite Miltenberg, in a north-westerly direction to the source of the Kinzig near Schlüchtern—a distance of 45 m.—and attains its highest elevation in the Geiersberg (1919 ft.), which lies north of the Rohrbrunn pass, through which runs the main road from Aschaffenburg to Würzburg. The forest, with which it is densely covered, consists of oak, beech, ash and fir, and the scenery, especially on the main side, between Gemünden and Lohr, is impressive. The climate is inclement in winter and oppressively hot in midsummer. The inhabitants are engaged chiefly in woodcutting, raft-making and quarrying, and most of the timber is floated down to Holland. Cobalt, silver, lead and copper are also worked, and the southern and western slopes yield wine of good quality. This beautiful tract of country until recent years was comparatively little known to the tourist, but a club (Spessart Klub) through the establishment of finger-posts and the issue of maps, has indicated the more interesting tours to be followed.
See Bücking, Der nordwestliche Spessart, geologisch aufgenommen (Berlin, 1893); Schober, Führer durch den Spessart (Aschaffenburg, 1904); Wolff, Der Spessart, sein Wirtschaftsleben (ibid., 1905).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sphaeristerium

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​SPHAERISTERIUM (Gr. σφαιριστήιον, σφαῖρα, ball), the term in Classic architecture given to a large open space connected with the Roman thermae, for exercise with balls after the bather had been anointed; they were also provided in the Roman villas.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sphene

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SPHENE, a mineral consisting of calcium titano-silicate, CaTiSiO$_5$, crystallizing in the mono clinic system. The crystals vary considerably in habit, but are generally thin and wedge-shaped; hence the name sphene, from the Greek σφήν (a wedge), given by R. J. Haüy in 1801. The earlier name titanite, given by M. H. Klaproth in 1795, is also in common use. Twinning on the ortho-pinacoid is not uncommon. The colour is green, yellow, brown or black, and the lustre resinous to adamantine; crystals are transparent to opaque. The hardness is 5½, and the specific gravity 3.5. The refractive indices and the optic axial angle vary considerably with the colour of the light: the dispersion of the optic axes is inclined, and the interference figure seen in convergent light between crossed nicols is very characteristic of the mineral. Sphene is sometimes cut as a gem-stone, though it is rather too soft to stand much wear; owing to its high dispersive power it gives brilliant flashes of prismatic colours. As small embedded crystals, sphene has a wide distribution as an accessory constituent of many kinds of igneous rocks (granite, syenite, trachyte, phonolite, &c.), and also of gneiss, schist and crystalline limestone. Sharply-developed, transparent, pale green crystals are frequently associated with adularia, asbestos and quartz in the crystal-lined crevices of the schists of the, Swiss and Tyrolese Alps. Large, rough and dark-coloured crystals are found at Arendal and Kragerö in Norway, and in granular limestone at Diana in New York and Eganville in Ontario. A greyish, compact and impure variety of sphene, known as ​"leucoxene," frequently occurs in basic igneous rocks as an alteration product of ilmenite and rutile. (L. J. S.)