the spur are thicker and longer than the sound ones, and generally project beyond their husks, appearing sometimes straight, and sometimes more or less crooked; and that their outsides are brown or black; their surface is rough, and three furrows may frequently be perceived in them which run from end to end. Their outward end is always thicker than that which sticks to the chaff, and the most swollen end is sometimes split into two or three parts. It is not unusual to find on their surfaces cavities which seem to have been made by insects.

SPUR was anciently a piece of the armour of a cavalier fastened to the talary, that is, the hind part of that piece of a complete armour which covers the legs and feet. At present the spur is a piece of iron or other metal.

SPUR, ORDER OF THE GOLDEN, in Rome, supposed by several writers to have been instituted by pope Pius IV., in 1559. The badge is a star of eight points argent, and between the two bottom points a spur or.

SPURS, in old fortifications, are walls that cross a part of the rampart and join to the town

wall.

SPURS, in the construction of a wooden bridge, are braces which prop the two pillars that support it. The French use the word éperon.

SPURGE, n. s. Fr. espurge; Belg. spurgie; Lat. purgo. A plant violently purgative: a general name in English for various milky purgative plants.

That the leaves of cataputia, or spurge, being plucked upwards or downwards, perform their operations by purge or vomit, is a strange conceit, ascribing unto plants positional operations.

Browne's Vulgar Errours. Every part of the plant abounds with a milky juice. There are seventy-one species of this plant, of which wartwort is one. Broadleaved spurge is a biennial plant, and used in medicine under the name of cataputia minor. The milky juice in these plants is used by some to destroy warts; but, particular care should be taken in the application, because it is a strong

caustick.

Miller.

SPURGE, in botany. See EUPHORBIA. SPURGE LAUREL. See DAPHNE. SPURGE OLIVE. See DAPHNE. SPURGE WORT is a species of iris. SPURIOUS, adj. Į Lat. spurius. Not geSPURIOUSNESS, n. s. nuine ; counterfeit ; adulterine; bastard: the noun substantive corresponding.

Reformed churches reject not all traditions, but such as are spurious, superstitious, and not consonant to the prime rule of faith. White.

The coin that shows the first is generally rejected as spurious, nor is the other esteemed more authentick by the present Roman medalists.

Addison on Italy. Your Scipios, Cæsars, Pompeys, and your Catos, These gods on earth, are all the spurious brood Of violated maids. Id. Cato.

You proceed to Hippolytus, and speak of his spuriousness with as much confidence as if you were able to prove it. Waterland.

If

any thing else has been printed, in which we really had any hand, it is loaded with spurious adSwift.

ditions.

All-saints, do lay for porke and sowse, For sprats and spurlings for your house. Tusser. SPURLING, OF SPARLING. See SALMO. SPURN, v. a. v. n. & n. s. Sax. rpoɲnan, from rpon, the foot. To kick; strike or drive with the foot: hence to reject; scorn: a kick; contemptuous treatment.

They supposed I could rend bars of steel And spurn in pieces posts of adamant. Shakspeare. Henry VI. You that did void your rheum upon my beard, And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur Over your threshold.

Id. Merchant of Venice.

A son to blunt the sword That guards the peace and safety of your person : Nay more, to spurn at your most royal image.

Instruct me why

Vanoc should spurn against our rule, and stir
The tributary provinces to war. Philips's Briton.
The drunken chairman in the kennel spurns,

The glasses shatters, and his charge o'erturns. Gay.
When Athens sinks by fates unjust,
When wild barbarians spurn her dust. Pope.
Now they, who reach Parnassus' lofty crown,
Employ their pains to spurn some others down. Id.
Man spurns the worm, but pauses ere he wake
The slumbering venom of the folded snake
The first may turn-but not avenge the blow,
The last expires-but leaves no living foe;
And he may crush-not conquer-still it stings!
Fast to the doomed offender's form it clings,
Byron.

SPURT, v. n. See To SPIRT. To fly out with a quick stream.

If from a puncture of a lancet, the manner of the spurting out of the blood will shew it. Wiseman's Surgery. SPUTATION, n. s. Lat. sputum. The act of spitting.

A moist consumption receives its nomenclature from a moist sputation, or expectoration: a dry one is known by its dry cough. Harvey on Consumption.

SPUTTER, v. n. Swed. sputa; Lat. sputo. To emit moisture in small flying drops; fly out in small particles: hence to speak hastily and obscurely.

If a manly drop or two fall down, That, sputtering in the flame, works outwards into It scalds along my cheeks, like the green wood, Dryden.

tears.

Thou dost with lies the throne invade; And sputtering under specious names thy gall. Id. Obtending heaven for whate'er ills befall,

A pinking owl sat sputtering at the sun, and asked him what he meant, to stand staring her in the eyes? L'Estrange.

They could neither of them speak their rage; and so fell a sputtering at one another, like two roasting apples. Congreve.

Though he sputter through a session, It never makes the least impression; Whate'er he speaks for madness goes. Swift. In the midst of caresses, and without the least pretended incitement, to sputter out the basest accusa

tions.

Id.

SPY, n. s., v. a. & v. n. Welsh yspio; Fr. espion; Belg. spie; Lat. speculator. It is observed by a German that spy has been in all ages a word by which the eye, or office of the eye, has been expressed: thus the Arimaspians of old, fabled to have but one eye, were so called from ari, which among the nations of Caucasus still signifies one, and spi, which has been received from the old Asiatic languages for an eye, sight, or one that sees.-Johnson. One who watches the conduct of others: one sent to gain intelligence of an enemy's movements; an informer: to search; discover; search narrowly; pry. Moses sent to spy out Jaazar, and took the villages. Numbers.

We'll hear poor rogues
Talk of court news, and we'll talk with them too,
And take upon's the mystery of things,
As if we were God's spies. Shakspeare. King Lear.
It is my nature's plague

To spy into abuse; and oft my jealousy
Shapes faults that are not.

Id. Othello.

Light hath no tongue, but is all eye; If it could speak as well as spy, This were the worst that it could say, That being well I fain would stay.

Donne.

Let a lawyer tell he has spied some defect in an entail, how solicitous are they to repair that errour! Decay of Piety.

Every corner was possessed by diligent spies upon

their master and mistress.

As tyger spied two gentle fawns.

I come no spy,

With purpose to explore, or to disturb. The secrets of your realm.

Such command we had,

Clarendon. Milton.

Id. Paradise Lost.

Milton.

Waller.

To see that none thence issued forth a spy,
Or enemy, while God was in his work.
Nothing lies hid from radiant eyes;
All they subdue become their spies:
Secrets, as chosen jewels, are
Presented to oblige the fair.
Over my men I'll set careful spies,
To watch rebellion in their very eyes.
My brother Guyomar, methinks, I spy ;
Haste in his steps, and wonder in his eye.
A countryman spied a snake under a hedge, half
L'Estrange.

frozen to death.

my

Dryden.

Id.

Those who attend on their state are so many spies placed upon them by the publick to observe them nearly. Atterbury.

Swift.

One in reading skipped over all sentences where he spied a note of admiration. SQUAB, adj. SQUABBISH. thick; heavy.

Lat. er cubito. Unfeathered; newly hatched: squabbish is,

Diet renders them of a squabbish or lardy habit of body. Harvey.

The eagle took the tortoise up into the air, and dropt him down, squab, upon a rock, that dashed him to pieces. L'Estrange. Why must old pigeons, and they stale, be drest, When there's so many squab one's in the nest? King.

made of many ingredients.

Cornwal squabpie, and Devon whitepot brings; And Leister beans and bacon, food of kings. King. SQUAB'BLE, v. n. Swed. kiabla; Teut. kabbelen, of Goth. keappa. To quarrel; to debate peevishly; to wrangle; to fight. A low word. Drunk? and speak parrot? and squabble? swagger? oh, thou invincible spirit of wine

Shakspeare. Othello. I thought it not improper, in a squabbling and contentious age, to detect the vanity of confiding ignorance.

Glanville.

In popular factions, pragmatick fools commonly begin the squabble, and crafty knaves reap the benefit. L'Estrange.

If there must be disputes, is not squabbling less inconvenient than murder? Collier on Duelling.

A man whose personal courage is suspected, is not to drive squadrons before him; but may be allowed the merit of some squabble, or throwing a Arbuthnot. bottle at his neighbour's head.

The sense of these propositions is very plain, though logicians might squabble a whole day, whether they should rank them under negative or affirmative. Watts's Logick.

SQUAD (Fr. escuoade), a diminutive of squadron, is used in military matters to express any small number of men, horse or foot, that are collected together for the purposes of drill, &c.

To SQUAD, to divide a troop or company into certain parts, ir order to drill the men separately or in small bodies, or to put them under the direction and care of some steady corporal or lance corporal. In every well regulated troop, or company, the men are squadded in such a manner that the most minute concern, with respect to the interior economy, can be instantly accounted for.

Aukward SQUAD. The aukward squad consists not only of recruits at drill, but of formed soldiers that are ordered to exercise with them, in consequence of some irregularity under arms. This term has likewise been used, partly in ridicule and partly in reproach, to mark out those officers who are negligent of their duty. industrious tactician, in the British army, frequently uses the expression in the latter sense.

Id.

They gladly thither haste; and by a choir Of squadroned angels hear his carol sung. Then beauteous Atys, with lulus bred, Of equal age, the second squadron led. Dryden. Rome could not maintain its dominion over so many provinces, without squadrons ready equipt. Arbuthnot.

SQUADRON (Fr. escadron), a body of cavalry composed of two troops. The number is not fixed, but is generally from eighty to 120 men. The oldest troop always takes the right of the squadron, the second the left. The most scientific and the most experienced officers have always held the cavalry in high estimation. The services which have been rendered by this body

of men; their innumerable successes, of which so

many records are preserved both in ancient and modern history, together with the unanimous approbation of those authors who are considered as masters in the art of war; all these circumstances sufficiently evince that cavalry is not only useful but indispensably necessary in war. Marshal Turenne was known to say-Avec une bonne cavalerie, on travaille l'armée de son en

nemie par détail; with a body of good cavalry one works, or harasses, the army of one's enemy by detail; meaning thereby, that the desultory and rapid movements of dragoons, if properly managed, are of a nature to destroy the best concerted plans of an adversary, by hanging upon his flanks, driving in his outposts, intercepting his convoys, and by taking advantage of every opening during the heat of engagement. The Austrians had a memorable instance of the latter, when the French general Désaix, at the head of a body of horse, decided the fate of the battle of Marengo. In pursuits the superiority of the cavalry is unquestionable.

SQUADRON OF SHIPS either implies a detachment of ships employed on any particular expedition, or the third part of a naval armament. SQUAL'ID, adj. Lat. squalidus. Foul; nasty; filthy.

A doleful case desires a doleful song, Without vain art or curious compliments; And squalid fortune into baseness flowing Doth scorn the pride of wonted ornaments.

Spenser.

Uncombed his locks, and squalid his attire, Unlike the trim of love and gay desire.

Dryden's Knight's Tale. SQUALL, v. n. & n. s. Swed. squala. To scream out as a child or woman frightened; a gust of wind or rain.

In my neighbourhood, a very pretty prattling shoulder of veal squalls out at the sight of a knife.

Spectator.

I put five into my coat-pocket; and, as to the sixth, I made a countenance as if I would eat him alive. The poor man squalled terribly. Swift. Cornelius sunk back on a chair; the guests stood astonished; the infant squalled.

Arbuthnot and Pope. There oft are heard the notes of infant woe, The short thick sob, loud scream, and shriller squall. Pope.

A SQUALL is a violent blast of wind usually occasioned by the interruption and reverberation

of the wind from high mountains. These are very frequent in the Mediterranean, particularly that part of it called the Levant, as produced by the repulsion and new direction which the wind meets with in its passage between the various islands of the Archipelago.

SQUAL'OR, n.s. Lat. squalor. Coarseness; nastiness; want of cleanliness and neatness.

Take heed that their new flowers and sweetness do not as much corrupt as the others dryness and Ben Jonson. squalor.

fulsome nastiness, squalor, ugliness, hunger, and What can filthy poverty give else, but beggary,

thirst?

Burton.

SQUALUS, the shark, in ichthyology, a genus arranged by Linnæus under the class of amphibia, and the order of nantes; but by Gmelin more properly referred to the class of pisces, and order of chondropterygii. The head is obtuse; on the sides of the neck there are from four to seven semilunar spiracles. The eyes are oblong, vertical, half covered, and before the foramen temporale. The mouth is situated in the interior and lower part of the head, and is armed with several rows of teeth, which are serrated, acute, partly moveable and partly fixed, and unequal in with very tender prickles. The ventral fins are form. The body is oblong, tapering, and rough, much less than the pectoral, and are situated round the anus and genitals. Sharks are seldom destructive in the temperate regions: it is in the torrid zone that their ravages are most frequent. In the West Indies accidents happen from them daily. During the American war, in 1780, while the Pallas frigate was lying in Kingston Harbour, a young north American jumped overboard one evening to make his escape, and perished by a He had been capshark in a shocking manner. tured in a small vessel, lost all his property, and was detained by compulsion in the English navy to serve in a depredatory war against his country. every bosom in America, resolved, as soon as he But he, animated with that spirit which pervaded mortifying state of employing his life against his arrived at some port, to release himself from the country, which, as he said when dying, he was happy to lay down as he could not employ it against her enemies. He plunged into the water; the Pallas was a quarter of a mile from the shore. A shark perceived him, and followed him very quietly till he came near the shore; where, as he was hanging by a rope that moored a vessel to a wharf, scarcely out of his depth, the shark seized his right leg, stripped the flesh entirely from the bones, and took the foot off at the ancle. He still kept his hold, and called to the people in the vessel near him, who were standing on the deck and saw the affair. The shark then seized his other leg, which the man by his struggling disengaged from his teeth, but with the flesh cut through down to the bone into a multitude of narrow slips. The people in the vessel threw billets of wood into the water and frightened the shark away. The young man was brought on shore. Dr. Moseley was called to him; but he had lost so much blood before any assistance could be given him that he expired before the mangled limbs could be taken off. A few weeks before this a shark, of twelve feet in length, was

caught in the harbour; and on being opened the entire head of a man was found in his stomach. The scalp and flesh of the face were macerated to a soft pulpy substance, which, on being touched, separated entirely from the bones. The bones were somewhat softened and the sutures loosened.-Moseley on Tropical Diseases. A very extraordinary instance of intrepidity and friendship is given by Mr. Hughes in his Natural History of Barbadoes. It happened about the end of queen Anne's wars at Barbadoes. The sailors of the York Merchant having ventured into the sea to wash themselves, a large shark made toward them; upon which they swam back, and all reached the boat except one, whom the monster overtook, and griping him by the small of his back, soon cut hin asunder, and swallowed the lower part of his body; the remaining part was taken up and carried on board, where a comrade of his was, whose friendship with the deceased had been long and reciprocal. When he saw the severed trunk of his friend, with a horror and emotion too great for words to paint, he vowed that he would make the devourer disgorge or be swallowed himself in the same grave, and plunged into the deep armed with a sharp-pointed knife. The shark no sooner saw him but he made furiously toward him; both equally eager, the one for his prey the other for revenge. The moment the shark opened his rapacious jaws, his adversary dexterously diving, and grasping him with his left hand somewhat below the upper fins, successfully employed his knife in his right hand, giving him repeated stabs in the belly; the enraged shark, after many unavailing efforts, finding himself overmatched in his own element, endeavouring to disengage himself, sometimes plunging to the bottom, then mad with pain rearing his uncouth form, now stained with his own streaming blood, above the foaming waves. The crews of the surrounding vessels saw the unequal combat, uncertain from which of the combatants the streams of blood issued; till at length the shark, much weakened by the loss of blood, made toward the shore, and with him his conqueror, who, now assured of victory, pushed his foe with redoubled ardor, and, by the help of an ebbing tide, dragged him on shore, ripped up his bowels, and united and buried the severed carcase of his friend. It is evident (says Dr. Moseley) that digestion in these animals is not performed by trituration, nor by the muscular action of the stomach; though nature has furnished them with a stomach of wonderful force and thickness, and far exceeding that of any other creature. Whatever their force of digestion is it has no effect upon their young ones, which always retreat into their stomachs in time of danger. That digestion is not performed by heat m fish is equally evident. The coolness of the stomach of these fishes is far greater than the temperature of the water out of which they are taken; or of any other part of the fish, or of any other substance of animated nature I ever felt. On wrapping one of them round my hand, immediately on being taken out of the fish, it caused so much aching and numbness that I could not endure it long. Of these voracious seamonsters there are thirty-three species; of which

the following is an exact list, with descriptions of the most remarkable :

1. S. acanthias, the picked dog-fish. There is another species which has the same English name, and probably the same characters.

2. S. Africanus, the African shark, or galonne, abounds on the coasts of Africa.

3. S. Americanus, the American shark, or liche, swarms on the coasts of America.

4. S. barbatus, the barbu, or bearded shark. 5. S. canicula, the greater dog-fish, or spotted shark, is distinguished by large nostrils, which are covered by a lobe and worm-shaped flap, or by the position of the anal fin, which is at an equal distance from the anus and tail. The body is spotted; the head is small, with a short snout; the eyes are oblong; the iris whitish; the mouth is large and oblong, armed with three rows of teeth; the tongue is cartilaginous; the anus is before the middle of the body; the first dorsal fin is behind the ventral fins; the other, which is less, is almost opposite the anal fin; the caudal fin is narrow and marginated. This species is found in almost every sea, is about four feet long, extremely voracious, generally feeding on fishes, and is long lived. The skin, which is spotted like a leopard, is used when dried for various purposes.

6. S. carcharias, the requiu, or white shark, is often thirty feet long, and, according to Gillius, weighs 4000 lbs. The mouth is sometimes furnished with a six-fold row of teeth, flat, triangular, and exceedingly sharp at their edges, and finely serrated. Mr. Pennant had one rather more than an inch and a half long. Grew says that those in the jaws of a shark two yards in length are not half an inch; so that the fish to which this tooth belonged must have been six yards long, provided the teeth and body kept pace in their growth. This dreadful apparatus, when the fish is in a state of repose, lies quite flat in the mouth; but when he seizes his prey he has power of erecting them by the help of a set of muscles that join them to the jaw. The mouth is placed far beneath; for which reason these, as well as the rest of the kind, are obliged to turn on their backs to seize their prey; which is an observation as ancient as the days of Pliny. The eyes are large; the back broad, flat, and shorter than that of other sharks. The tail is of. a semilunar form, but the upper part is larger than the lower. It has vast strength in the tail and can strike with great force; so that the sailors instantly cut it off with an axe as soon as they draw one on board. The pectoral fins are very large, which enables it to swim with great swiftness. The color of the whole body and fins is a light ash. The ancients were acquainted with this fish; and Oppian gives a long and entertaining account of its capture. Their flesh is sometimes eaten, but is esteemed coarse. They are the dread of the sailors in all hot climates, where they constantly attend the ships in expectation of what may drop overboard: a man that has that misfortune perishes without redemption. A master of a Guinea ship informed Mr. Pennant that a rage of suicide prevailed among his new-bought slaves, from a notion the unhappy creatures had, that after death they should be re

stored again to their families, friends, and country. To convince them at least that they should not re-animate their bodies he ordered one of their corpses to be tied by the heels to a rope and lowered into the sea; and, though it was drawn up again as fast as the united force of the crew could be exerted, yet in that short space the sharks had devoured every part but the feet, which were secured at the end of the cord. Swimmers very often perish by them; sometimes they lose an arm or a leg, and sometimes are bit quite asunder, serving but for two morsels for this ravenous animal: a melancholy tale of this kind is related in a West India ballad, preserved in Dr. Percy's Relics of ancient English poetry. This species inhabits the abyss of the ocean, and only appears on the surface when allured by its prey. It is the most voracious of all animals, not even, it is said, sparing its own offspring, and often swallowing its prey entire. This is probably the species of fish that swallowed the prophet Jonah; for a whale it could not be without an additional miracle.

7. S. catulus, the smaller dog-fish, has a large head; the pupil of the eye is black; the iris white; the snout is of a bright hue; the mouth, which is large, is situated between the nostrils, and is armed with four rows of teeth, serrated with three points bent inwards; those in the middle between the two mandibles are longer than the rest. The tongue is broad and smooth; the spiracles are five; the back is tapering and yellowish; the sides are somewhat compressed; the tail longer than the body, and the caudal fin is narrow and marginated; the anterior anal and dorsal fins are behind the ventral; the posterior dorsal fin is opposite to the anal. They inhabit the Mediterranean, Northern, and Indian Ocean, and are two or three feet long.

8. S. centrina, the humantin.
9. S. cinereus, or the perlon.
10. S. cirratus, the curled shark.

11. S. cornubius, the por-beagle, or Beaumaris shark.

12. S. Fernandinus, the Fernandine shark. This species swarms near Juan Fernandez.

13. S. Galeus, the tope.

the abdominal fins. The body is somewhat flat; the head short, large, and obtuse. The teeth are disposed in six rows, compressed short, and triangular, having a notch on each side of their bases. The eyes are sunk; the iris is of a copper color, and the pupil is black and oblong. The fins of the back are almost square; the caudal fin is divided into two lobes, and the lateral line is parallel to the back. The upper part of the body is of a reddish ash-color, with blackish spots disposed irregularly. The under part is of a dirty white hue. This species is found near New Zealand, and is about two feet and a half long.

18. S. kumalis, the kumal.

19. S. longicaudus, the long-tailed shark.
20. S. massasa, the massasa.

21. S. maximus, the basking shark, or the sun-fish of the Irish. This species has been long known to the inhabitants of the south and west of Ireland and Scotland, and those of Caernarvonshire and Anglesey; but is described by no English writer except Mr. Pennant; and has been mistaken for, and confounded with, the luna of Rondeletius, which English writers call the sun-fish. The Irish and Welsh give it the same name, from its lying as if to sun itself on the surface of the water; and for the same reason Mr. Pennant calls it the basking shark. It was long taken for a species of whale, till Mr. Pennant pointed out the bronchial orifices on the sides, and the perpendicular site of the tail. These are migratory fish; in a certain number of years they are seen in multitudes on the Welsh seas, though in most summers a single strayed fish appears. They inhabit the northern seas, even as high as the arctic circle. They visited the bays of Caernarvonshire and Anglesey in vast shoals in the summers of 1756 and a few succeeding years, continuing there only the hot months; for they quitted the coast about Michaelmas. These fish visited these seas in vast numbers about fifty years ago. They appear in the Frith of Clyde and among the Hebrides in June, in small droves of seven or eight, but oftener in pairs. They continue in those seas till the end of July. They have nothing of the fierce and voracious nature of the shark's kind, and are so tame as to suffer themselves to be stroked; they generally lie motionless on the surface, commonly on their bellies, but sometimes on their backs. Their food seems to consist entirely of sea plants, no remains of fish being ever discovered in the stomachs of numbers that were cut up, except some green stuff, the half digested parts of algae, and the like. Linnæus says they feed on medusa. At certain times they are seen sporting on the waves, and leaping with vast agility several feet out of the water. They swim very deliberately, with the dorsal fins above water. Their length is from three to twelve yards, and sometimes longer. Their form is rather slender. The upper jaw is much larger than the lower, and blunt at the end. The tail is very large, and the upper part remarkably longer than the lower. The upper part of the body is of a deep leaden color; the belly white. The skin is rough like shagreen, but less so on the belly. In the mouth, towards the throat, is a

E