Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/393

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SOMERVILLE. 339 SONATA. a successful paper on tlie Maynclic Properties of the fiulur Speclnini to the Royal Society in 1826 ilrs. Sonierville was invited by Lord Brougham in the following year to try to pupularize for the English public Laplace's great work, the Mceaiiicjiie Celeste. This was published as the Celestial llechanism of the Heavens in 1831. The Connection of the Phi/sieal ficicnces was pvib- lished in 1834, I'ht/sical (Jeography in 1S48, and Mohcnhir and M icroscopic Seirncc in lSC(i. The Mary Somerville scholarship in niatliematics for women was founded at Oxford University in lier honor. An autobiography, edited and supple- mented by a daughter, Jlartha Somerville, was published in 1873. SOMERVILLE, William (1675-1742). An English poet of an ancient family, born at Col- wich, in Staffordshire. In 1G90 he was sent to Winchester School, whence he passed to New College. Oxford (1694). He obtained a fellow- ship, which he kept till 1705. though he was for a time student at the Jliddle Temple (1696). On his father's death (1705) he inherited the family estate at Edstone. Warwickshire, where he settled and passed his life with his books and his hounds. Somerville is remembered mainly for his blank-verse poem The Chase (1735), which vividly depicts his favorite sport. He also wrote some good verse fables (1725, 1727), a burlesque of rural games entitled Hohbinol (1740), and Field Sports (1742). His poems with a Life are in the collections of Johnson and Chalmers. Consult also Tlte Cliase, with memoir by G. GilfiHan (Edinburgh, 1859). SOMME, som. A small river of Northern France, entering the English Channel through an estuary which is navigable for ocean steamers to Saint-Valery (Map: France, HI). From that point a lateral canal follows the river past Amiens to Saint-Simon, whence two other canals communicate with the Oise and the Scheldt. SOMME. A northern maritime department of France, bounded on the north by the English Channel, south by Pas-de-Calais, and northeast by Seine-Inferieure (Map: France, J 2). Area, 2443 square miles. Population, in 1896, 543,- 279; in 1901, 537,848. The chief river is the Somme, which traverses the department from southeast to northwest. Somme is mostly level, but in some parts is marshy. The department produces corn and garden fruits. The raising of cattle is carried on to a great extent. The chief manufactures are velvets, cliemicals, woolens, cottons, linens, silk, leather, and tapestries. Cap- ital, Amiens. The department was formed main- ly out of the old Province of Picardy. SOMNAMBULISM (from Lat. somnus. sleep -f ainhithire, to walk). A state intermediate be- tween those of sleeping and waking, character- ized by the performance of various acts api)ar- ently indicative of conscious control, by absence of the usual reaction to stimuli, and usually by inability to recall on awakening any of the thoughts or movements which have taken place during the abnormal condition. Somnambulism may be self-induced, spontaneous, or idiopathic, or artificially induced, as in the hypnotic trance. In the latter sense, the tenn is popularly used as a synonym of hypnosis, but strictly speaking it should be limited in accordance with its defi- nition by the 'Paris school,' who apply the term only to the 'third stage' of the hypnotic state. (See Hypnotism.) In this, the final stage, the subject is almost completely ansestlietic, obeys or- ders by movement and i)erception, and, wlien awakened, has no memory at all of what has elapsed during the somnambulistic period. Spontaneously induced somnambulism of a mild or imperfect type is frequent. It is most obviously, though perhaps not most strikingly, manifested by per.sons who walk at night during sleej). A sliglit stimulus, enough to catch the at- tention, will restore the normal condition. In its pronounced form, often exliiliited liy patients sulTering from hysteria, somnambulism approadi- es, if it does not cross, the border-line belween the merely anomalous and the abnormal or patho- logical. Psychologically, sleep-walking is only a dream carried one step beyond its usual limita- tions. In dream-walking the barrier to execu- tion is partially lifted, and the conditions of nor- mal connection between idea and movement are fulfilled. Somnambulism further differs from normal sleep in that, within certain limits, there is in it cognizance of external objects. The som- nambulist may walk the ridge-pole thinking it a boulevard, but his actions are confined to rela- tively simple acts, which, like walking, have be- come automatic by practice. Consult: Tuke, Sleep-Walking and Hypnotism (London, 1884) ; Li^gois, De la suggestion ct du soinnamhnlisme dans leur rapport avec la juris- prudence et la medecine Ugale (Paris, 1889) ; W. Wundt, Lectures on Human and Animal Psychol- ogy, trans. (New York, 1894). SOMNATH,. som'nath, or Patan. A town in Gujurat, Province of Bombay, India, on the Kath- iawar Peninsula; 38 miles northwest of the island of Diu, on the Arabian Sea (Map; India, B 4). Its port is Verawal, 3 miles to the north- west. Of great antiquity as an important com- mercial centre and pilgrimage resort, the town was captured by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1025 and its celebrated temple despoiled of its vast riches. Population, about 6600. SOM'NUS (Lat., sleep). The Latin god of sleep, son of Night and twin brother of Death, corresponding to the Greek Hyimos. His home was in the far west, from which he brought sleep to gods and men alike. In art he is variously represented, with eagle's wings, a butterfly, a poppy stalk, with a horn from which he poured out shimher. SONATA (It., sonata, sonata, p.p. fcm. of sonare, to sound, from Lat. sonare. to sound, from sonus, sound). In music, an instrumental composition in cyclical form, originally any instrumental work as opposed to a cantata or vocal work. At first the sonata was almost iden- tical with the suite (q.v.), but it soon aban- doned the pure dance forms which the suite embodied. The violin sonata attained a some- what perfected form before that of any of the keyed instruments. Its slow introductory first movement generally shows traces of ecclesiastical influence: the second movement, an allegro, which corresponds to the first movement of a modern sonata, was derived from vocal madrigals or part music: the third movement, which is charac- teristically slow, was evolved from solo vocal music, while the last movement showed elements of dance music, and was therefore a pure suite