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SWIFT 195 SWINBURNE tions. For years he searched the heavens for comets, and discovered the notable one of 1862. In 1869 he observed a total solar eclipse and secured valuable re- sults. Two years later he found another comet, and in 1877-1879 discovered other comets, for which he was three times awarded the court prize and received a gold medal from the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna. In 1882 he as- sumed the directorship of the Warner Observatory, and later took charge of the Lowe Observatory. He was the author of "Simple Lessons in Astron- omy" (1888). He died in 1913. SWILL Y, LOUGH, a long narrow in- let of the Atlantic on the N. coast of Donegal, Ireland; enters between Dunaff Head on the E. and Fanad Point, on which there is a lighthouse (fixed light visible 14 miles), on the W. A second lighthouse, on Dunree Head, has a fixed light visible for 13 miles. The entrance is protected by forts. Lough Swilly pene- trates about 25 miles inland, and has a width of 3 to 4 miles. On the E. shore is the small town of Buncrana, much re- sorted to for sea-bathing. On its waters a French fleet under Bompart was de- stroyed in 1798, and not many years later the British ship "Saldanha" foun- dered at the entrance in a storm. SWIFT, LINDSAY, an American edu- cator, born at Boston, in 1856. He was educated at Harvard University and was editor of the Boston Public Library. Be- sides contributing to many journals and editing several works in American his- tory, he wrote: "Massachusetts Election Sermons" (1897) ; "The Great Debate Between Hayne and Webster" (1898) ; "Literary Landmarks of Boston" (1903) ; "Benjamin Franklin" (1910); "William Lloyd Garrison" (1911). SWIMMING, the art of propelling one's self through water by motions of the arms and legs; is a highly useful art and a gymnastic exercise of the first order. It has been introduced as a feature of physical training in some public schools. There are numerous me- chanical aids to the teaching of swim- ming, in the form of cork floats, cork jackets, and many inflated india-rubber contrivances. In midsummer, 1875, Cap- tain Bojrton paddled himself, clad in a dress of the latter description, across the English Channel from Cape Grisnez to South Foreland; but the most wonderful swimming feat on record is that of Cap- tain Webb, British Mercantile Marine, who in August, 1876, swam from Dover to Calais without artificial floats. The distance as the crow flies is 22 V^ miles, but owing to tides and currents the course traversed by Webb was at least 15 miles longer, and the time occupied was 21% hours. Two years later a sim- ilar feat was accomplished by Mr. Cavill in 12 hours. Cape Grisnez and South Foreland being the points of departure and landing. Till April 7, 1886, a much-disputed question was the length of time a person could remain under water. On the date given J. Finney, in a tank at the Can- terbury Theater of Varieties, London, remained below the surface 4 minutes 29% seconds, which time will probably never be equaled, the nearest approach to it being 3 minutes 18% seconds on Sept. 27, 1889, by Miss Annie Johnson. The best plunge or standing dive, the body which has to be kept face down- ward having no progressive action im- parted to it other than the impetus of the dive, stands to the credit of G. A. Blake, who on Oct. 10, 1888, at Lambeth Baths, did 75 feet 7 inches. Among other re- markable performances those of T. Burns who dived from Runcorn Bridge (85 feet) in October, 1889, and then swam to Liverpool, from whence he walked to London and dived off London Bridge. SWIMMING BLADDER, the swim bladder or air bladder of fishes; a hol- low sac, formed of several tunics, con- taining gas, situated in the abdominal cavity, but outside the peritoneal sac, entirely closed or communicating by a duct with intestinal tract. The special function of the swimming bladder is to alter the specific gravity of the fish, or to change the center of gravity. It is absent in the Leptocardii, Cyclostomatcu, Chondroptery gii, and Holocephala, but occurs in all the Ganoidei, in one sub- order of which (Dipnoi) it possesses anatomical characters, and assumes, to some extent, the functions of a lung; in the genus Ceratodus, the swimming bladder, though a single cavity, has sym- metrically arranged internal pouches, while in the other genera of the sub-order {Lepidosiren and Protopteriis) it is lat- erally halved, is supplied with venous blood by a true pulmonary artery, and by its cellular structure closely ap- proaches the lungs of a reptile. SWINBURNE, ALGERNON CHARLES, an English poet and essayist son of Admiral Charles Henry Swinburne; born in London, England, 1837; was edu- cated at Balliol College, Oxford. His first productions were "Queen Mother" and "Rosamund" (1861). They were fol- lowed by two tragedies: "Atalanta in Calydon" (1864), and "Chastelard" (1865), and by "Poems and Ballads"