STEREOGRAPHIC PROJECTION. (See Projection of the Sphere.)

STEREOMETRY (from σTεpos, solid, and METOV, measure); literally, the measure of solids; a branch of geometry, the name of which would make it applicable to the measurement of all solids, but which, in fact, is limited, by elementary geometry, to a certain number, and is made to embrace other qualities in addition to their solid contents. The solids of which it treats, are those inscribed within plane surfaces, and a few inscribed within curved surfaces, viz. the cylinder, cone and sphere all the others it leaves to the higher geometry. A solid, in geometry, is that which has length, breadth, and thickness. If the body in question is a prism (q. v.), its height indicates how many layers, each equal to its base, must be laid one above the other, in order to form the solid figure; in other words, the contents of the prism are equal to the product of the height multiplied by the base. The same is the case, as will be readily seen, with the cylinder. (q.v.) A prism of three sides may be divided, as is easily shown by actual cutting, into three pyramids (q. v.), each of three sides, of the same height and base with the prism. A prism of many sides, and a pyramid of many sides, may be divided into as many three-sided prisms or pyramids as the base has sides; hence the contents of every pyramid are equal to a third of the product of the height multiplied by the base. The same is the case with the cone (q. v.), which has a circle for its base, i. e. a polygon of innumerable sides, and, therefore, can be considered as a pyramid. A sphere (q. v.) may be considered as composed of an infinite number of pyramids, all of which have their vertices in the centre of the sphere its contents, therefore, are equal to a third of the product of its surface (which makes the sum of the bases of all these pyramids) and its radius. These are the chief points of stereometry; but it also teaches how to compare the various solids with each other, and to ascertain their superficial contents. See Hossfeld's Lower and Higher Practical Stereometry (1812, 4to.); see, also, the article Stereometry in the fourth volume of Klügel's Mathem. Dictionary (in German), by Molweide (Leipsic, 1823).

STEREOTYPE PRINTING. (See Printing.) STERLING; an epithet of English money of account. It is by some derved from easterling, a name by which the Hanseatics were called in some of 50

VOL. X'

the western countries of Europe; others derive it from the Anglo-Saxon steore (rule, or law). (See Coins.)

STERN; the posterior part of a ship, or that part which is presented to the view of a spectator, placed on the continuation of the keel, behind.

STERN-POST; a long, straight piece of timber, erected on the extremity of the keel, to sustain the rudder and terminate the ship behind. It is usually marked, like the stem, with a scale of feet, from the keel upwards, in order to ascer tain the draught of water abaft.

STERNE, Lawrence, a divine, and an original writer, the son of a lieutenant in the army, was born at Clonmell, in Ireland, in November, 1713, and was put to school at Halifax, in Yorkshire, in 1722, whence he removed to Cambridge, and studied for the church. He took his degree of master of arts in 1740, before which he was advanced; and, by the interest of doctor Sterne, his uncle, a prebendary of Durham, he obtained the living of Sutton, a prebend of York, and, subsequently, by the interest of his wife, whom he married in 1741, the living of Stillington, at which, and at Sutton, he performed the clerical duties for nearly twenty years. During this period, he appears to have amused himself with books, painting, music, and shooting, but was little known beyond his vicinity, the only production of his pen being his humorous satire upon a greedy church dignitary of York, entitled the History of a Watch Coat. In 1759, following, appeared the two first volumes of his celebrated Tristram Shandy, which drew upon him praise and censure of every kind, and became so popular that a bookseller engaged for its continuance on very lucrative terms. Accordingly a third and fourth volume appeared in 1761, a fifth and sixth in 1762, a seventh and eighth in 1764, and a ninth, singly, in 1766. If, in the groundwork of this extraordinary production, a resemblance may be traced to the ridicule of pedantry and false philosophy in Scriblerus, the style and filling up are chiefly his own, although he borrowed entire passages from Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, and the works of bishop Hall and others. In 1768, he produced his Sentimental Journey (in 2 vols., 12mo.), which, by a number of pathetic incidents, and vivid strokes of national and characteristic delineation, is rendered extremely entertaining, and acquired a more general reputation than even its predecessor. In 1760 appeared two volumes of Seren

of Mr. Yorick, to which he added two additional volumes in 1766, with his own name. He died of pulmonary consumption, in March, 1768, leaving a widow and one daughter. The latter, who was married to a French gentleman, published a collection of her father's letters, in three volumes, 12mo., to which were prefixed memoirs of his life and family. In the same year, an anonymous editor published Letters between Yorick and Eliza, which were regarded as the authentic correspondence, in a strain of high sentimental friendship, between Sterne and Mrs. Draper, an accomplished East Indian lady. His private character was by no means honorable to his genius, affording another proof that the power of expressing and conceiving strong feelings by no means implies that they will influence the conduct.

STERNHOLD, Thomas; the principal author of the metrical version of the Psalms long used in public worship in our churches, and not yet entirely discontinued. He was a native of Hampshire, and educated at Oxford, and became groom of the robes to Henry VIII, who left him a legacy of 100 marks. He held a similar office under Edward VI, in whose reign he died, in August, 1549. The principal coadjutor of Sternhold, in his versification of the Psalter, was John Hopkins; and the names of these persons have become a proverbial designation of bad poets. Sternhold also produced Certayne Chapters of the Proverbs of Solomon, drawen into Metre, which were published after his death.

STERNUTATION. (See Sneezing.) STESICHORUS; a Greek lyric poet, born at Himera, in Sicily, about B. C. 612. He composed a number of works, which were highly esteemed by the ancients. Horace speaks of Stesichori graves camana; and Dionysius Halicarnassus says, that he had all the graces of Pindar and Simonides, while he surpassed them both in the grandeur of his subjects. He was the first who introduced into the ode the triple division of strophe, antistrophe, and

epode; and he is said to have thence derived his name, which was before Tisias. A few fragments of his works, to the amount of fifty or sixty lines, alone remain. See Kleine's Stesichori Fragmenta (Berlin, 1828), with a preliminary treatise.

STETHOSCOPE (from orneos, chest); an instrument consisting of a short tube, widening towards one end, with which physicians have, for some years, been accustomed to examine the internal state of the human body (e. g. in diseases of the lungs and other internal organs, also in hernia, and the condition of women in pregnancy, &c.), by applying the stethoscope to the chest or abdomen, and putting the ear to the narrower end. Many disorders may be distinguished very clearly in this way; and the instrument has proved, in the hands of many physicians, a useful invention.-See Laennec, Auscultation Médiate (Paris, 1819).

STETTIN; a town of Prussia, capital of Pomerania, and of a government and circle of the same name, situated on the Oder, about 60 miles from the Baltic, 80 miles north-east of Berlin; lon. 14° 46′ E.; lat. 53° 20′ N. It stands on an eminence on the left bank of the Oder, and has three suburbs, five gates, and several squares. The principal public buildings are the castle, government house, arsenal, barracks, hospitals, exchange, theatre, and public library. It has five Lutheran churches, an academical gymnasium, college, &c. Population, 32,191. Stettin is a place of extensive trade, the great outlet of the manufactures of Silesia, and the depot of colonial goods and foreign fabrics required by that province, as well as by Berlin, and other towns in Brandenburg. The number of vessels entered here, in 1814, was 1534; cleared, 1180. Vessels drawing more than seven feet water stop at Swinemunde. (See Oder.) The leading articles of export are linen, corn, and timber; of imports, coffee, sugar cotton, dye-woods, and wine. The man ufactures are very various.

RHYTHM, in general, means a measured division of time. The rhythm, in dancing, is made manifest to the eyes by steps, and, in music and language, to the ears by tones. (See the beginning of the article Dancing.) We must refer the fondness for rhythm, in the human mind, to its love of order, harmony, syinmetry, which lies at the basis of all the arts. As song, music and dancing sprung from the same sources, and, in the earliest periods of nations, are actually united, the rhythm of all three has much in common. The rhythm of poetry is susceptible of the same exact divisions of time as the rhythm of dancing and music; but rhetorical rhythm is satisfied with a pleasing cadence of syllables an approximation to the rhythm of verse, particularly at the beginning and end of periods. The orator or eloquent prose writer arranges his words in an expressive and pleasing succession, but he does not follow precise rules, like the versifier. The poetical rhythm, like every species of rhythm, requires a succession of motions of regular duration, which, variously interrupted, must yet be obvious, and combined according to the rules of beauty and grace, so as to form a harmonious whole. In order to make rhythm please, its constituent parts must excite the feeling of variety in harmony or unity. The various parts must form a whole, and exhibit a beginning, middle and end, by a measured rise and fall. Those parts which receive the ictus, the stress, of the rhythm are called arsis (elevation), the other parts thesis (positio, depression). To denote the arsis, the common acute accent is used ('), e. g. Singula quæque locum teneant sortita decenter. The arsis must by no means be confounded with the long syllable, nor the thesis

with the short syllable. As the short syl lable is the smallest constituent part of a verse, it is considered as the original unit for the measure of time in the rhythm and is called a time, or mora. The abso lute duration of this unit depends upo the quickness or slowness with which the rhythmical composition is uttered. The smallest rhythmical magnitude is the foot by which every union of arsis and thesis is understood. A single word may constitute a foot; or the beginning and end of the foot may be in the middle of words, as in the following verse:

Contém-nit, ár-tibús-que ví-vit dé-ditúm turpis-si

mis.

Rhythm can be imagined without words, and may be indicated by notes, or other signs of long and short syllables. Hence the rhythm may also be divided differently from the words, as we have just seen; and the division of the words should not agree with the rhythmical feet, except where a rhythmical series is concluded, or the pausing of a part of the same requires a break in the text. In all other cases, the divisions of the rhythm ought to separate the parts of words as much as possible, which is called cæsura. (q. v.) Greeks distinguished the feet according to the number of units of time contained in them. The Romans divided them, according to the number of syllables, into four of two syllables. eight of three syllables, and sixteen of four syl lables, and called them, with the Greeka thus:

1. Feet of two Syllables. Pyrrhichius.

Spondeus.

Choreus, or Trochæus. Iambus.

The

2. Feet of three Syllables. Tribrachys.

Molossus.

Dactylus.

Anapæstus.

Amphibrǎchys.

Amphimăcer.
Bacchéus.

Palimbachéus, or Antibachéus.

3. Feet of four Syllables.
Proceleasmaticus (Dipyrrhich-
ĭus.)
Dispondeus.

Dichoreus, or Ditrochæus.
Dijambus.
Choriambus.

Antispastus.

SLATE. Clay slate (Thon Schiefer of the Germans) and argillite. By the early English geologists, this rock was called argillaceous schistus, and it is denominated phyllade by the modern French writers. The structure of slate is eminently foliated or schistose, separating, in some of its varieties (as in the roofing slate, for example), into laminae as thin as pasteboard. Prevailing color gray of various shades: it is also bluish, reddish and greenish; opaque and dull; yields to the knife, but varies considerably, as respects hardness, in its different varieties; fissile; specific gravity 2.7. When moistened, it emits an argillaceous odor. The common roofing slate appears to consist very nearly of the following ingredients:

Ionicus a minore.
Ionicus a majore.

Pæon primus.
Pæon secundus.
Pæon tertius.
Pæon quartus.
Epitritus primus.
Epitritus secundus.
Epitritus tertius.

Epitritus quartus.

These feet are simple or compound, redundant or retrenched. The first consist of but one arsis and thesis, as,

་་,!, ╚, &c. The second consist of two of each sort, of which one arsis and thesis, taken together, is considered as a single arsis or thesis, as ༦་་, མང╚〉, or

- The third are such as contain, besides a simple foot, a short prefix or affix, or in which feet of unlike quantity are connected with each other, as, ~— -~--, The fourth sort are feet which, with two arsises, have but one thesis, or have two arsises immediately succeeding each other without a thesis between, e. g. Lu, Luut,

LL

トト

L

or --;, utt, duty, ut, u; ~~~~±±±±-,-. Of the simple feet, those only which have a long syllable in the arsis, and a short syllable in the thesis, afford natural variety, as Lu, Luv, u,. The trochee and dactyle, therefore, the iambus and anapest, are considered as the fundamental feet of all rhythm, with which the other feet can be brought into connexion by resolving a long syllable into two short ones, or by contracting two short into one long (For more information, see Verse.)

Magnesia,

Carbon,.

Water,

But slate varies exceedingly in its chemical constitution, as might very naturally be expected, since it is a mixed rock, consisting of very minute individuals of quartz, feldspar and mica, to which are occasionally added scales of talc, and particles of carbonaceous matter. Those slates which contain a large proportion of quartz, are called whet-slate. In these, the mechanical composition is impalpable, and the fracture splintery in the small, though slaty in the large. They are translucent, and of a greenish-white color. When magnesia enters largely into the composition of slate rocks, they are distinguished by their green color, and by their unctuous feel. These are the slates which, for the most part, have tale as an ingredient, and are often called talc, or chlorite slates. When carbonaceous matter prevails to the proportion of eight or ten per cent., the slate soils more or less, and even writes. It is then called drawing slate, or black chalk. This variety is softer than the preceding kinds, and sometimes possesses the property of adhering to the tongue. Its specific gravity is only 2.18. A variety of slate called adhesive slate, from its property of adhering to the tongue, deserves to be mentioned, although it is very remote in its properties from the roofing slate, which may be considered as the type of the present rock. Fracture in the large slaty; in the fine earthy; color light gray; specific

ill another argillaceous aggregate, which has been treated of along with the slates, is the polishing slate. It differs from adhesive slate in not adhering forcibly to the tongue, in being very soft, and in having a low specific gravity, namely, 0.50 to 0.60.-Slate, in varieties approaching roofing slate, occurs in vast strata in primitive countries, and is often observed graduating into mica slate. Wherever its strata are contiguous to granite, gneiss or mica slate, it is noticeable that it has a more shining lustre: as it recedes, however, from the primary rocks, its texture is more earthy. It is commonly divided into beds of various degrees of thickness, which are generally much elevated; and, from the natural divisions of the rock, they often form peaked and serrated mountains. The cleavage of these beds is in a transverse direction, making with the slope of the bed an angle of about 60°. The finest variety which is used for roof slate seldom forms entire mountains, but is generally imbedded in slate rocks of a coarser kind. Those kinds are selected for the covering of buildings which have the smoothest surface, and split into the thinnest plates. Quarries of slate of this description are worked extensively in Westmoreland, Yorkshire, Leicestershire, North Wales, Cornwall and Devonshire. Excellent deposits of roofing slate occur at several places in Vermont, one of which is situated near Brattleborough, upon the Connecticut river; also in Massachusetts, in Worcester county, where it is associated with the peculiar mica slate that contains anthracite coal. Excavations of considerable extent have been made in Harvard and Pepperell; and the slate obtained has been employed both as a roofing slate and for grave-stones. Whet slate is found in beds between strata of common slate in transition formations. The use of this variety for hones and whet-stones is well known. The most valuable kinds come from Sonnenberg, in Meiningen, and from Saalfeld. They are likewise brought from the Levant. It has been discovered, within a few years, in great perfection, over a very large extent of country in North Carolina. An inferi

or variety occurs extensively in the vicinity of Boston, at Charlestown, Quincy and Malden. Talcose and chlorite slates are found abundantly in various parts of New England, and afford the gangue for the most part of the native gold of the Southern States. The drawing slate, which is used as a drawing material, comes from Italy, Spain, and Bayreuth in Thuringia. It has been observed also at several places in Rhode Island, and in the neighborhood of coal measures generally in the U. States. Adhesive slate occurs only at Menil, Montant and Montmartre, near Paris. Polishing slate, which is believed to have been formed from the ashes of burnt coal, occurs at Planitz, near Zwickau, and near Bilin, in Bohemia. It is used as a polisher of metals.

SOUTH AMERICAN GEOLOGY. The equatorial regions of America exhibit the same composition of rock that we meet with in other parts of the globe. The only formations which Humboldt could not discover in his travels were those of chalk, roe-stone, gray-wacke, the topazrock of Werner, and the compound of serpentine with granular limestone, which occurs in Asia Minor. Granite, in South America, constitutes the great basis which supports the other formations: above it lies gneiss: next comes micaceous schist, and then primitive schist. Granular limestone, chlorite schist, and primitive trap, often form subordinate beds in the gneiss and micaceous schist, which is very abundant, and sometimes alternates with serpentine and sienite. The high ridge of the Andes is every where covered with formations of porphyry, basalt, phonolite, and green-stone; and these, being often divided into columns, that appear from a distance like ruined castles, produce a very striking and picturesque effect. At the bottom of these huge mountains occur two different kinds of limestone; the one with a silicious base, enclosing primitive masses, and sometimes cinnabar and coal; the other with a calcareous base, and rementing secondary rocks together.-Plains of more than 600,000 square miles are covered with an ancient deposit of limestone, containing fossil wood and brown iron ore: on this rests the limestone of the higher Alps, presenting marine petrifactions at a vast elevation. Next appears a lamellar gypsum, impregnated with sul. phur and salt; and, still higher, another calcareous formation, whitish and homogeneous, but sometimes cavernous. Again occurs calcareous sand-stone, then lamellar gypsum mixed with clay; and the