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coloured, and permanent; it is compofed of one leaf, and ftands fide ways on the amentum. There are no petals, but the cup being coloured, has been by fome taken for a flower. The ftamina are fix long capillary filaments, three ftanding on each fide. The antherse are oblong and erect. The germen of the piftil is oval, and divided into three lobes. There is no ftyle. The ftigmata are three, and are obtufe and permanent. The fruit is an oval berry, having only one cell, and containing only one oval feed. Limfai
Gen. PL p. 155- . . , , .
SAURUS, in ichthyography, a name given by fome authors to the Jacertus, or longer gar fifli, called agugha imperials by the Italians, and the girrock by the Englifh fifhermen. Wil- lughby, Hift. Pifc p- 232.
Saurus, the lizard fijh, is alfo a name given by Salvian, and fome other writers, to a fifli of the cuculus kind, re- iembling the mackrel in figure and tafte, and more ufually called tracburus. Salvian, de Aquat. p. 15. See the article Trachurus.
SAUSTRA beady, m natural hiftory, a name given by the people of the Eaft-Indies to a kind of fulfil, to which they attribute great virtues in medicine.
Before it is given internally, it undergoes an hundred calcin- ations, and feveral preparations with the juices of herbs. When the operation is over, they fay it will cure a thousand difeafes. It has its name from thence, the word faujlra fig- nifying with them a thoufand.
It is a talcy Hone, and in its native ftate is of a reddifh co- lour. Woodw. Cat. Foil Vol. 2.
SAUVAGEA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The perianthium is com- pofed of five acute and lanceolated leaves, and remains after the flower is fallen. The flower confifts of five plane, erect, obtufe, emarginated petals, which are longer than the leaves of the cup. The ftamina are numerous capillary fi- laments, about half the length ©f the flower. The anthers: are fimple. The germen of the piftil is buried in the cup. The ftyle is fimple and fhort. The ftigmata are fix ; they are of an oblong figure, and of the length of the ftyle. The fruit is a covered oval capfule, confifting of one cell. The fpatha and capfule open horizontally along the middle. The feeds are fmall and numerous. Linnai Gen. PI. p. 24.0.
SAW fijb) in ichthyology, the Englifh name for the fifli called by authors the prifles, zndferra pifc'is. It has thefe names from the form of its fnout, which rcfembles a large toothed faw. According to the new fyftem of Artedi, this is a fpecies of fqualus, and is diftinguifhed from the other fpecies of the fame genus, by the name of the fqualus with a long point- ed and flatted fnout, dentated on each fide. See Tab. of Fifties, N° 5. and Serra pifcis and Squalus.
SAWING a/under, a punifhment very common among the antient oriental nations. See Pitifc. in voc. ferra.
SAXIFRAGE, faxifraga, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the rofaceous kind, confifting of feveral petals diJpofed in a circular form ; from the cup of which there arifes a' two horned piftil, which finally becomes, together with the cup, a roundifh, but two horned bicapfular feed veiTeJ, which ufually contains a number of very fmall feeds. The fpecies of faxifrage, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe. 1. The common round leaved faxifrage. 2. The faxifrage with bulbs at the leaves. 3. The fmall annual fixing faxifrage, called rue-leaved whitlow grafs. 4. The mofly faxifrage with trifid leaves. 5. The trifid leaved alpine faxifrage with pale yellow flowers. 6. The fmall hairy trifid leaved alpine faxifrage. 7. The white flowered trifid leaved rock faxifrage. 8. The many flowered houfeleek leaved white faxifrage. 9. The Pyrenean houfeleek leaved faxifrage with crenated leaves. 10. The narrower houfeleek faxifrage with ferrated leaves. 11. The faxifrage with rounded ferrated leaves. 12. The alpine houfeleek faxifrage with rough leaves. 13. The purple flowered heath-like al- pine faxifrage. 14. The blue flowered heath-like alpine faxifrage. 15. The long leaved pyramidal mountain faxi- frage. 16. The frnalleft yellow flowered Pyrenean faxi- frage with leaves like houfeleek, very clofely put together. 17. The frnalleft white flowered Pyrenean faxifrage with leaves very clofely fet together. 18. The frnalleft alpine faxifrage with bluifh green leaves bending downwards. 19. The yellow alpine houfeleek leaved faxifrage. 20. The broad leaved Pyrenean trifid faxifrage. 21. The broad leaved rigid faxifrage with trifid leaves. 22. The frnalleft trifid leaved Pyrenean faxifrage with pale yellow flowers. 23. The Pyrenean faxifrage with leaves partly whole, and partly trifid. And 24. the frnalleft yellow flowered mofs- like Pyrenean faxifrage. Tourn. Inft. p. 252. In the materia medica we have two very different plants defcribed under the name of faxifrage ; fo that the writers on thefe fubjects feem often ftrangely to contradict one an- other in their defcriptions, -when they are really defcribing two perfectly different plants.
The one is the faxifraga antiquormn. This is a low plant, fomewhat refembling thyme, and its feed is of an agreeable fmellj and warm and acrid tafte. The other is the com-
mon white meadow faxifrage, a plant of fix or eight inches high, with roundifh leaves and large white flowers. The root of this fpecies is granulofe, or made up of anum* ber of fmall knobs, and thefe are in moft places ufed in the fhops under the name of faxifrage feeds. The feeds of faxifrage were once in great efteem, as a diu- retic and remedy for the ftone, but they have of late loft thetr credit. It may be obferved, however, that we are not proper judges of what might have been the virtues of an acrid feed, while we ufe in its flead an infipid root. Lemery's ^ Hift. of Drugs.
Golden Saxifrage. See Chrysoplenium.
Red Saxifrage, faxifraga rubra, a name given by fome bo- tanic authors to the filipendula or dropwort. Get: Emac. Ind. 2. See Filipendula.
Tellow S axifr age, faxifraga lutea, a name given by Fuchfius, and fome other authors, to the common melilot. Ger. * Emac. Ind. 2.
SAYACU, in zoology, the name of a Brafilian bird, of the fize of our chaffinch, and all over of a greyifh green colour, and very beautifully bright and fhining in the back and wings. Its beak is black, as are alio its eyes. Marggrave's
^ Hift. ofBrafil.
SAYAN, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome to a fpe- cies of fea fwallow. The bird whofe nefts are fo famous an ingredient in foops.
SCAB — CrowfiScAB, in the manege, is a mealy fcurf upon the pafterns of a horfe, that make the hair briftle and ftare.
SCABBARD, in the manege, is the fkin that ferves for a fheath or cafe to a horfe's yard.
SCABBED -keels or frufh, in the manege, is an eating .putrefac- tion upon a horfe's frufh, which is very hard to cure, and has a noifome fmell.
SCABIES, the itch [Cycl.)— Medical writers diftinguifh this hateful difeafe into two kinds, the benign and the malign. The benign itch befide being divided into the dry and moift, is alfo diftinguifhed into the chronic, which remains on the patient for many years, and the periodic, which returns and difappcars at certain periods. It is alfo divided by others into the fuperficial and profound, the firft affecting only the fkin, and arifing ufually from contagion, the other lying deeper in the blood and humors.
The malignant itch is of many kinds, diftinguifned by the epithets ferine, fcorbutic, venereal, and leprous. In thefe cafes the malignant itch is fometimes called alfo the com- plicated itch, as it is complicated with other diforder?, and is attended with various fymptoms, not properly belonging to it as the itch.
Signs of the itch. The moft obvious and general figns of the itch are the eruption of pimples, or puftules, over the whole furface of the body, excepting only the head ; which contain, in the end, a famous and ulcerous matter. Thefe puftules ufually appear firft in the hands, and fuch other parts as are moft expofed to the air, and from thefe they gradually fj:r^ad themfelves all over the body ; the body is more turgid in thofe places where the puftules are fituated, than in a ftate of health; ami thefe puftules are a. tended with a violent itching, efpecially in the night. After a few days they ei- ther break of themfelves, or are opened by fcratching, and then ' become fo many little ulcers ; thefe, however, ufually heal of themfelves in a very little time, and leave no fear be- hind them. This kind" of benign itch occupies no part but the fkin, and indeed the matter always lies between the cutis and cuticula, whence the cutis not being deeply corroded, the cuticle cafily heals. Junker's Confp. Med. p. 448.
In the benign moijl itch, the puftules contain a large quan- tity of matter, and when broken difcharge a large flow of it j there is alfo round the bafis of the puftules of this kind an inflammatory red circle ; and, inline, the more plainly that appears, the greater is the fuppuration. The ulcerations, in this kind, are deeper than in the dry, and the puftules rather give afenfation of pain and burning heat than of itching. In the benign dry itch, the puftules are much fmallcr than in this cafe, and are full of a limpid water; and they ulce- rate the fkin more fuperficially, and caufe a violent itching, rather than any forcnefs or heat in the parts. The malignant itch, when of the ferine kind, called alfo by fome the fcorbutic itch, is dry and fcaly, and frequently fhews bloody fpots under the larger fcales. The fkin round about thefe is tinged by the ftagnating blood, fometimes to a red, fometimes to a livid, or bluifh black colour. The itch- ing from this kind is much more violent than from the benign, and on any hidden change of the body, either to hotter, or colder, becomes almoft intolerable. When the fcabs and cuticle are fcratched off, as is very frequently the cafe, the cutis under- neath is ieen red and bloody, but neither blood nor lymph are difebarged from the fcabs in forne cafes, in others ayel- lowifti ferous liquor runs out, and aimofr immediately har- dens into a fcab or cruft like that which was pulled off. The venereal or pocky itch. This is ufually rather dry than moift, and does not fpread itfelf fo quickly as the other kinds. It fometimes occupies the body in general, fometimes only particular places, as the thighs, the fcroium, or the face.
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