SCR
scu
of taking off ones in a week or ten days, otherwife the pans burn away, and are deftroyed. Sue Salt. This is no other than the fame fubftance which crufts over the infides of our tea-kettles, and is truly a fpar, fuftained more or lefs in all water, and feparable from it by boiling. The (hells of fea fifti have great affinity in their fubftance and nature with this, both being powerful alkalis, and both eafily calcining into lime.
The magncfia alba, fo celebrated in Germany for its mild purgative and alkaline virtues, feems very nearly allied to this earth ; and it is probable, according to Hoffman, that the purging virtues of many fprings are owing to the quan- tities they contain of this fubftance. Scratch pans, in the Englifh. falt-works, a name given to certain leaden pans, which are ufually made about a foot and half Ions, a foot broad, and three inches deep, and have a bow, or circular handle of iron, by which they may be drawn out with a hook, when the liquor in the pan is
boiling.
Salt.
The ufe of thefe pans is to receive a calcarious earth, of the nature of that which incrufts our tea-kettles, which feparates from the water in boiling ; this fubftance they call /cratch ; and thefe pans being placed at the corners of the fait pan, where the heat is leaft violent, catch it as it fubiides there. SCREW (Cyd.)— Screw, in the manege. See Splent and
THOROU GH-fpfatt.
Screw-_/7j<?//, the Englifh name of the turbo. See the
article Turbo. SCRIPTULUM, among the Romans, the twenty fourth part of an ounce, and equal to two oboli. See the article Obo- lus, Cyd. SCRIPTULUS, a word ufed by fome inftead of fcrupulus,
a fcruple, or weight of twenty grains. SCROFANELLO, in zoology, a name by which fame have called a fmall fifti of the Mediterranean, more ufually known by the name of the fcorpana. Salvian, de Aquat, p. 94. See Scorpjena. SCROPHULARIA, fig-wart, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower confifts of one leaf, and is of a fort of globofe form, open at the mouth, and divided as it were into two lips, the up- per of which has two fmall leaves under it. The piftil arifes from the cup, and Is fixed in the manner of a nail to the hinder part of the flower, and afterwards becomes a fruit or capfule, of a roundifti but pointed figure, divided by an in- termediate feptum into two cells, and containing fmall feeds affixed to a placenta.
The fpecies of figwort, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe. 1, The common, or knobby rooted fig-wort. 2. The great hairy figzvort. 3. The great figwort with green ftaiks and leaves. 4. The great wzter-figwort, commonly called tvater-hetony. 5. The lefler water figwar t '-. 6. The yellow flowered figwort. 7. The nettle-leaved figwort. 8. The baum-Ieaved yf^wwrf. 9. The be tony-leaved _/£«/«-/. 10. The ihrubby figwort with thick leaves, like in fhape to thofe of teucrium, 11. The fmooth elder-leaved Spanifh figwort. 12. The great hairy elder-leaved Portugal figwort. 13. The roundifh thick and black leaved figwort with pale yellow flowers, and very turgid feed veffels. 14. The fern-leaved fcrophularia, or broad leaved dog's rue. 15. The Alining ftone figwort with laferwort leaves. 16. The narrow leaved figwort, commonly called dog's rue. ly. The lefler dog's me figwort. 18. The vervain-leaved fhrubby Portugal^- •wort. Town, Inft. p. 167.
The root of ficropbularia is effeemed externally as a remedy for the piles and the king's evil. It is generally made into an ointment for thefe purpofes ; but fome give it alfo inter- nally in diet drinks.
This root is of a very lingular figure, by which it is eafily di- ftinguiflied at fight from all other medicinal roots. It is ufu- ally of the thicknefs of a man's finger, or more, of an oblon^ figure, nearly as thick at the one end as the other, and full of protuberances on the furface, refembling a kind of little kernels ; and between there are a great many fibres, which ftrike deep into the ground. The root itfelf has no great fmell, but its tafte is fome what acrid and difagreeable. SCROTUM (Cyd.) — Many authors have given accounts of the diftemperatures of this part, of various kinds, impeding the intent of the propagation of the fpecies, but one of the inoft remarkable of thefe, is the excefnve growth of that part, as well in length as in breadth and thicknefs. Secur- gius, in his Spermatobgia, gives an account of a perfon, whofe fcrotum grew to fuch a fize, that it reached down to his knees, and the penis was fo wholly loft in it, that the paflao-e for the urine was fcarce vifible, and feveral orifices were made by a fharp humor ouzing out of it in different places. The perfon lived a long time with it in this con- dition, and ufed to fupport it by a bandage worn acrofs the fhoulders.
The author gives alfo an account of another firotum of this kind, which being at length taken off, partly by a mortifi- cation, and partly by the operation of a furgeon, was re- placed again by nature iri the Dime uitufuat fize.
SCRUTATORES, among the Romans, certain officers, or fervants, whofe bufinefs it was to fearch every body that came to falute the emperor, in order to difcover if they had any kind of arms concealed about them. They were fir it inftituted under the emperor Claudius. Pitifc. in voc.
SCULION, in ichthyology, the name given by Ariftotle, and many other of the antient writers, to the fifti called by later authors catulus, and catulus major, and in England the bounce. It is a fpecies of the fqualus, called by Artedi the reddifii variegated fqualus with the pinna ani placed in the middle, between the anus and the fin of the tail. See the article Squalus.
SCULPONE/E, among the Romans, a kind of flioes worn by flaves of both fexes. Thefe Ihoes were only blocks of wood made hollow, like the French fabots.
SCUMA, a word ufed by fome of the chemifts for fquamma, the fcales of any metal, and particularly applied to the flakes flying oft* from hot iron under the hammer.
SCURFF, in zoology, an Englifh name for a fpecies of fal- mon, called alfo in fome places the bull-trout. It never grows to any great fize, and differs plainly from the fal- mon of the common kind in this, that its tail is even, and not forked. Its head is fhort and thick, and its fieih is lefs red than that of moil of the falmon kind. IVillughby, Hift. Pifc. p. 193.
SCQRRA, in zoology, a name by which the antients have called the monedula, or common jackdaw. Ray's Ornithol.
p. 85.
SCURVOGEL, in zoology, the name of an American bird, called by fome the nhe fide r-apoa, and by the ^n\(\Yr^ns jaliru- guacu.
It is of the crane kind, or nearly approaching to that genus. Its beak is large, (even or eight fingers breadth long, rounded, and fomewhat bent upwards at the end. In the fummit of the head he has a fort of honey crown, of a mixed greyifh and whitifh colour. Its neck is confiderably long, and both that and the head are dertitute of feathers, and are only covered by a fquammofe naked fkin. It is about the fize of the ftork, and lias a ihort black tail ; all the reft of the feathers are white, except that the long wing feathers are blackifh, with fomewhat of a purplifti glofs. When the fkin is taken off, it is drefled feveral ways, and is a very deli- cately tafted bird. Rays Ornitholog. p. 202. SCURVY {Cyd.) — There are fome who derive all difeafes from the fcurvy, which indeed muft be allowed to create, or mimic moft other maladies. Boerhaave tells us it pro- duces pleurctic, colic, nephritic, hepatic pains, various- fe- vers, as hot, malignant, and intermitting, dyfenterics, faiut- incrs, anxieties, dropfies, confumptions, convulsions, palfies, fluxes of blood ; in a word, it may be faid to contain the feeds and origin of almoft all diftempers. A cachexy, or ill habit, is much of the fame nature with the feursy. It is fuppofed by phyficians, that the immediate caufe of the fcurvy lies in the blood, 'the fibrous part of which is thick, and the ferum too thin and fharp ; and that hence arifes the great difficulty in the cure, becaufe in the correcting of one part, regard muft be had to the other. It is well known how extremely difficult it is to cure an inveterate feuiyy j how many fcorbutic patients have grown worfe by an inju- dicious courfe of evacuations ; how many are even rendered incurable by the treatment of inconfiderate phyficians ; and how difficult, tedious, and uncertain the cure is, in the hands even of the beft, who are obliged to ufe fuch variety and change of medicines, in the different ftages of that ma- lady ; which neverthelefs may be cured, fays the Bifhop of Cloyne, by the fole, regular, conftant, copious ufe of tar- water. In the cure of the ficurvy, the principal aim is to fubdue the acrimony of the blood and juices; but as this acrimony proceeds from different caufes, or even oppofite, as acid and alkaline, what is good in one fort of fcurvy proves dangerous, or even mortal, in another. It is well known, that hot anti-fcorbutics,where the juices of the body are alkalefcent, increafe the difcafe; and four fruits and ve- getables produce the like effect in the fcurvy caufed by acid- acrimony. Hence fatal blunders are committed by unwary practitioners, who, not diftinguifhing the nature of the dif- eafe, do frequently aggravate, inftead of curing it. The bifhop fays, if he may truft what trials he has been able to make, this water is good in the feveral kinds of fcurvy, whether acid, alkaline, or muriatic ; and he believes it the only medicine that cures them all, without doing hurt in any. In a high degree of fcurvy a mercurial falivation is looked on by many as the only cures which, by the vehe- ment fhock it gives the whole frame, and the fenfible fecre- tion it produces, may be thought to be more adequate to fuch an effect : but the diforder, occafioned by that violent procefs, it is to be feared, may never be got over. The im- mediate dangei, the frequent bad effects, the extreme trou- ble and nice care attending fuch a courfe, do very deferv- edly make people afraid of it. And though the fenfible fe- cretion therein be fo great, yet in a longer tract of time the ufe of tar -water may produce as great a difcharge of fcorbu- tic falts by urine and perforation ; the effect of which laft,
though.
