ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

form of a living demonstration." The same prediction is said to have been frequently repeated by the young clairvoyant in his interviews with his visitors. Another event is spoken of as possessing some significance in connection with this history. In the spring of 1843, the societies of Shakers at New Lebanon and Watervliet, N. Y., and several other communities of that fraternity, almost simultaneously became the subjects of strange psychological experiences, during which certain of the members would lose all personal consciousness, while influences purporting to be the spirits of persons of different nations, and who had lived in the world in different ages, took possession of their bodies, and spoke through their vocal organs. Shakers who personally witnessed these phenomena describe them as being very impressive, and a constant burden of their communications was: "Treasure these things up in your hearts; say nothing of them, for the present, to the world's people, but the time is not far distant when these same wonders which you now behold shall be witnessed extensively in the world." These manifestations continued for a year or more, when they suddenly ceased, the alleged spirits bidding the "brethren" farewell, with a promise to come again before many years, when their manifestations should be addressed not merely to a select few, but to the world in general.-The commencement of the "spirit-rapping" phenomenon was as follows: Some time in the year 1847 the attention of Mr. Michael Weekman, who resided in the little village of Hydesville in the township of Arcadia, Wayne co., N. Y., was called to certain rapping sounds upon the door of his house, which he was unable by the most diligent efforts to trace to any visible cause. Mr. Weekman soon afterward vacated the house, and the family of Mr. John D. Fox moved into it. In the latter part of March, 1848, this family was startled by mysterious rappings that were heard nightly upon the floor of one of the bedrooms, and sometimes in other parts of the house. They endeavored to trace the sounds to their cause, but failed. On the night of March 31, having been broken of their rest for several nights previous, they retired to bed earlier than usual, hoping to be permitted to sleep without disturbance. The sounds, however, were resumed, and, occurring near the bed occupied by two of the daughters, the youngest girl, then about 10 years old, attempted to imitate them by the snapping of her fingers. Whenever she would snap her fingers, the raps would immediately respond by the same number of sounds. One of the girls then said: "Now do as I do; count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6," at the same time striking her hands together. The same number of raps responded, and at similar intervals. The mother of the girls then said: "Count 10;" and 10 distinct raps were heard; "Count 15," and that number of sounds followed. She then said: "Tell us the age of Cathy [the youngest daughter] by rapping, one for each year," and the

number of years was rapped correctly. Then, in like manner, the age of each of the other children was by request indicated by this invisible agent. Startled and somewhat alarmed at these manifestations of intelligence, Mrs. Fox asked if it was a human being that was making that noise, and if it was to manifest it by making the same noise. There was no sound. She then said: "If you are a spirit, make two distinct sounds." Two raps were accordingly heard. The members of the family by this time had all left their beds, and the house was again thoroughly searched, as it had been before, but without discovering any thing that could explain the mystery; and after a few more questions, and responses by raps, the neighbors were called in to assist in further efforts to trace the phenomenon to its cause; but these persons were no more successful than the family had been, and they confessed themselves thoroughly confounded. For several subsequent days the village was in a turmoil of excitement, and multitudes visited the house, heard the raps, and interrogated the apparent intelligence which controlled them, but without obtaining any clue to the discovery of the agent, further than its own persistent declaration that it was a spirit. About 3 weeks after these occurrences, David, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Fox, went alone into the cellar where the raps were then being heard, and said: "If you are the spirit of a human being, who once lived on the earth, can you rap to the letters that will spell your name? and if so, rap now 3 times." Three raps were promptly given, and David proceeded to call the alphabet, writing down the letters as they were indicated, and the result was the name "Charles B. Rosma," a name quite unknown to the family, and which they were afterward unable to trace. The statement was in like manner obtained from the invisible intelligence, that he was the spirit of a peddler who had been murdered in that house some years previous. At first, we are told, the raps occurred in the house even when all the members of the family were absent, but subsequently they occurred only in the presence of the two younger daughters, Catharine and Margaretta. Soon after these occurrences the family removed to Rochester, at which place the manifestations still accompanied them; and here it was discovered, by the rappings at the letters of the alphabet in the manner before described, that different spirits were apparently using this channel of communication, and that in short almost any one, on coming into the presence of the two girls, could get a communication from what purported to be the spirits of his departed friends, the same often being accompanied by tests which satisfied the interrogator as to the spirit's identity. A new phenomenon was also observed in the frequent movement of tables and other ponderable bodies without appreciable agency, in the presence of these two young girls. These manifestations, growing more and more remarkable, attracted

numerous visitors, some from long distances, and the phenomenon began, as it were, to propagate itself, and to be witnessed in other families in Rochester and vicinity, while, as coincident therewith, susceptible persons would sometimes fall into apparent trances, and become clairvoyant, and reaffirm these raps and physical movements to be the productions of spirits. In Nov. 1849, at the request of the alleged spirits, a public meeting was called in Corinthian hall, Rochester, for the purpose of submitting these phenomena to the investigation of a committee to be appointed by the audience, with a view to the publication of a report concerning their nature and claims, whatever the decision respecting these might be. The Misses Fox appeared upon the stage, the phenomena were freely manifested and were subjected to many tests, and a committee appointed for their investigation, after having continued their experiments there and elsewhere for several days, reported that they were unable to trace them to any mundane agency. From that time, and especially from the time the Fox girls arrived in New York city in the following month of May, the alleged spiritual manifestations became the subject of extensive newspaper and conversational discussion; their facts were published far and wide; "mediums," through whom they were said to occur, sprang up in different parts of the country, and were multiplied by hundreds and almost by thousands; and for several years spiritualism constituted one of the most prominent themes of public discussion. Among the mediums of the alleged spiritual manifestations there have been representatives from all classes and conditions of mankind, male and female, high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned; and even little children in their swaddling clothes are said to have been, in some few instances, mediums for the raps. The alleged mediums have been classified as rapping mediums; mediums for tipping and turning tables by a slight touch of the finger; mediums for the movement of ponderable bodies without contact; mediums for the production of phosphorescent lights in a dark room; mediums for playing on musical instruments in a manner beyond their ordinary abilities; mediums for involuntary writing; impressional speaking, seeing, hearing, personating, and healing mediums; mediums in whose presence are produced drawings, and pictures in colors, and writings, and also in many instances tangible and visible living human forms; and mediums for the development of other mediums. By the raps and tipping of tables, and by the control of the medium's organs to write and speak, the spirits are supposed to express their own peculiar intelligence in a degree of perfection proportioned to the development and passivity of the medium; and it is averred that persons while under the spiritual afflatus have often spoken in foreign tongues which they had never learned; and writings in languages to them unknown

have, in a few instances, been produced in their presence, as we are told, by invisible hands. Mediums for the movement of ponderable bodies without hands, are said to be sometimes also mediums for the preternatural movement of their own bodies; and intelligent and respectable persons testify that they have seen the medium Henry Gordon float in air several feet above the floor, for several minutes, without the slightest physical contact or support, he being at the time deeply entranced. Individuals long deceased, it is said, have often been personated by mediums so that their surviving friends would instantly recognize them, and their earthly history has been accurately detailed, though the mediums may never have known nor heard of them. Persons report that the spirits of their departed friends have been seen and correctly described, and their words repeated, though to all but the medium they were invisible and inaudible; and obstinate diseases, on which the skill of the physician has been exhausted in vain, are said to have been quickly cured simply by the imposition of the hands of the medium while under spirit influence. Spiritualists admit that many impositions have been practised under the name of spiritual manifestations, but they aver that in most instances cheats could not have been palmed off even if designed, and that in other cases there could be no possible motive for deception, as the investigations were carried on in private families, while the mediums were their own sons and daughters. The "Spiritual Register" for 1859 estimates the number of actual spiritualists in America at 1,500,000; those who have more or less faith in the doctrine, but do not openly espouse it, 4,000,000; public advocates, 1,000; mediums, public and private, 40,000; places for public meetings, 1,000; books and pamphlets, 500; periodicals, 30. Spiritualists, however, are not associated under any regular organization, but have their representatives among all sects and parties of religionists and non-religionists, and these estimates of their numbers can be considered as only approximately correct.-Spiritualism numbers among its avowed converts in America many persons well known in the walks of science, philosophy, literature, and statesmanship. While it has its converts from every religious denomination, no small proportion of its advocates are from the ranks of those who previously doubted or totally disbelieved the immortality of the soul, and who affirm that they carry their sceptical tendencies into the investigation of this subject. On matters of speculative theology, there seems to be among them the widest latitude of opinion, though a majority of them perhaps are in their speculations inclined to what may be termed a sublimated naturalism. They tell us that it is not the object of the spirits to teach theological dogmas as by any authority superior to that of man, but rather, by the mental and physical phenomena incidentally presented in the course of their manifestations, to

furnish those elements of reasoning from which each one may work out his own conclusions; while we are told that the main object of their manifestations is to furnish actual demonstration of the immortality of the soul and of some of the conditions and laws of the post mortem existence.-Spiritualism has also made considerable progress in Europe, especially in England and France. In England, it is stated, many of the nobility as well as of the intelligent middle classes are believers in it, and hold communications with their departed friends through mediums in their own families. Several books and pamphlets have been published on the subject in that country, and a semi-monthly periodical is issued in London devoted to its facts and philosophy. In France its believers are still more numerous. Several able journals devoted to the subject are published in Paris, and read throughout France, Switzerland, and Belgium. Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, and in short nearly every nation of Europe, appears to have its devotees of spiritualism, in greater or smaller numbers. Travellers in the north of Africa tell us that it has made considerable progress in the Barbary states; and reports from China represent it as having very distinctly appeared at several localities within that empire, and especially at the city of Shanghai, about the time of its first advent in America. For specimens of the better kind of spirit communications, considered as literary productions, see "Spiritualism," by the Hon. John W. Edmonds and G. T. Dexter, M.D. (2 vols. 8vo., New York, 1854-5); "The Healing of the Nations," by Charles Linton, with introduction and appendix by N. P. Tallmadge, late U. S. senator and governor of Wisconsin (8vo., New York, 1855); "Scenes in the Spirit World, or Life in the Spheres," by Hudson Tuttle, medium (12mo., New York, 1855). Among books produced in the ordinary manner, the following may be consulted: "Experimental Investigations of the Spirit Manifestations," by Prof. Robert Hare (8vo., New York, 1856); “A Discussion of the Facts and Philosophy of Ancient and Modern Spiritualism," by S. B. Brittan and B. W. Richmond, M.D.; "Modern Spiritualism, its Facts and Fanaticisms," &c., by E. W. Capron (8vo., Boston, 1855). With the exception of these and a few other books, the best portion of the literature of spiritualism is to be found in the various periodical publications devoted to that subject. SPITZBERGEN, a group of 4 principal and several smaller islands in the Arctic ocean, the northernmost land yet discovered, between lat. 76° 30′ and 80° 30′ N. and long. 9° and 22° E., and about midway between Greenland on the W. and Nova Zembla on the E.; area, about 22,000 sq. m. The large islands are Spitzbergen, North-East Land, South-East Land, and Charles. On the E. of Spitzbergen proper is a peninsula called New Friesland or East Spitzbergen. The island is very mountainous, some of the peaks rising to the height of 3,000 or 4,000 feet above the level of the sea. On

Charles island are 5 summits ranging from 4,000 to 4,500 feet high. The N. shores of Spitzbergen and North-East Land are more level, and here and on several of the smaller islands some soil is found, in which a few very diminutive plants spring up and mature in a month or 6 weeks of the short summer. Immense glaciers abound, and the islands are almost covered with perpetual snow. The mean temperature of the 3 warmest months is 34.5°. For 4 months of the year the sun does not rise, but the long night is relieved by a faint twilight, and the occasional brilliant light of the aurora borealis; the moon and stars also shine here with great brightness. The islands are frequented by great multitudes of sea fowl, as well as by polar bears, foxes, and reindeer. Marble and coal of a good quality are found. The neighboring seas abound with whales, seals, and walruses, which are taken in large numbers by the vessels that visit this inhospitable region; and Russian whalers have lived for years on the islands.-These islands are supposed to have been first discovered by Willoughby in 1553; but their discovery is generally dated from the visit of Barentz, the Dutch navigator, in 1596, in his search for a N. E. passage to the Pacific, who named the principal island Spitzbergen (pointed mountains) from its numerous sharp peaks. Their sover eignty is claimed by Russia. A Swedish scientific expedition under Prof. Torell explored Spitzbergen in the summer of 1861, whose report is expected to form an important addition to the previous knowledge of that region.

SPLEEN (Gr. σnλŋy), the largest of the vascular or ductless glands, whose probable functional office is subsidiary to the process of sanguification. It is situated in the left hypochondriac region, below the diaphragm, above the descending colon, between the cartilages of the false ribs and the cardiac extremity of the stomach, to which it is united by short vessels. It is in health from 3 to 4 inches long and 2 thick, of an elongated flattened form, and about 7 oz. in weight; on the inner surface is a longitudinal groove in which are situated the blood vessels, posteriorly resting on the vertebral column; below it is in relation with the left kidney and capsule, and with the pancreas behind. It is soft, spongy, and dusky red; the external surface is covered with the peritoneum; beneath this is a coat of white fibrous tissue with some elastic fibres, from the inner surface of which extends through the entire organ a network of fibrous bands and threads, the trabecular tissue. The splenic artery comes from the coeliac axis, the trunks not anastomosing, but subdividing like the branches of a tree, to which the Malpighian corpuscles are attached as fruits on short peduncles, ending generally in capillaries with very thin walls, passing in every direction through the organ and into the interior of the corpuscles; but in man, according to Mr. Gray, the capillaries frequently disappear, and the blood passes from

arteries to veins through lacuna or mere channels in the pulp tissue. The veins are branched like the arteries, have no valves, and the principal stem is one of the trunks of the vena porta; the nerves form the splenic plexus, and proceed from the solar plexus; the lymphatics are few and superficial. The parenchyma consists of a homogeneous mass of colorless nucleated corpuscles and cells imbedded in a granular plasma, in various stages of rapid development and change; this is in the greatest quantity toward the end of the digestive process, when a large amount of fresh alimentary material is introduced into the circulation. The splenic corpuscles, or Malpighian bodies of the spleen, are whitish spherical bodies, varying in diameter from to of a line, largest and most numerous in healthy and well fed individuals and animals. There are colored cells in the spleen pulp, chiefly red blood corpuscles in various stages of degeneration, and a few pigment cells. It is proportionately the largest and most active in early and vigorous manhood; it is found in all classes of vertebrates, and of various shapes and sizes. The great amount of blood sent to the spleen, its minute distribution, and the contents of the glandular vesicles, show that cell growth proceeds rapidly in its substance; their products, however, are returned in an altered state to the blood, passing through the liver before entering the vena cava. It is probably a storehouse of albuminous nutritive material for the formative operations, which may be drawn upon as the system requires it, and with the absorbent glands probably assists in supplying the germs of the blood corpuscles. It is also generally believed to serve as an organ for the relief of the portal circulation, preventing undue accumulation of blood in the liver by the ease with which its vessels are distended. Obstruction of the circulation in the liver affects the spleen directly; when the alimentary canal is distended with food, were it not for the spleen the portal system would be gorged with blood; the general internal venous congestion which results from the cold stage of intermittent fever, it is well known, causes a perma nent enlargement of the spleen. Its presence is not essential to life, at least in the adult; it has often been removed in animals, and in a few instances in man, without apparent ill consequences, its functions probably being performed by the other ductless or even the lymphatic glands. (See GLAND.) Almost every one has experienced a sharp pain or stitch under the ribs of the left side, after violent or long continued running and active exercise; this is caused by distention of the spleen by the blood obstructed in its passage through the liver; a similar pain is felt in the cold stage of fever and ague. It is sometimes greatly enlarged, as in the last mentioned disease and in typhoid fever, and it is engorged and softened in scurvy; in its chronic diseases, the face is apt to assume a dull ashy white color, seen also in

the eyes; it is subject to inflammation, generally from external injury, with pain, tenderness on pressure, and fever, requiring antiphlogistic treatment. The spleen was by the ancients supposed to be the source of black bile, which predisposed to and produced the melancholy temperament; and the terms "spleen" and "splenetic" are to this day employed to describe the ill-natured, fretful, and desponding state of mind commonly called "the blues;" it is hardly necessary to say that there is no connection between the spleen and the above temperament.

SPOHR, LUDWIG, a German composer, born in Brunswick, April 5, 1784, died there, Oct. 22, 1859. In early youth he devoted much attention to the study of the violin, his skill in performing on which, when practically tested at the congress of Vienna in 1814, was declared superior to that of any of his rivals. Subsequently he gave concerts for several years in various parts of Europe, and in 1822 established himself in Cassel as chapelmaster of the elector, in whose service he remained until near the close of his life. He produced a great number of orchestral symphonies, concertos, quartets, and other instrumental works, and cantatas, songs, ballads, and other vocal pieces, which are popular throughout Germany; but his reputation rests chiefly on his operas, "The Mountain Spirit," "The Alchemist," "The Crusaders," "Jessonda," " "Faust," "Zemira and Azor," and "Pietro of Abano;" and on his oratorios, "The Last Judgment," "The Crucifixion," and "The Fall of Babylon," which are among the finest works of their class produced since the time of Handel. His symphony entitled "The Consecration of Tones" is also a great favorite in the concert room. Forty years before his death he discontinued performing on the violin, but left to violin players an admirable treatise on the subject, entitled "The Violin School." During the latter years of his life he composed little.

SPOLETO, formerly a delegation of the Papal States, now belonging to the kingdom of Italy, bordering on the Neapolitan territory; area, 1,130 sq. m.; pop. in 1853, 134,939. It is drained by the rivers Tronto, Tiber, Nera, Corno, and Velino. The valley of Spoleto is very fertile, and produces large quantities of maize, wine, olives, melons, and silk. Under the new organization Spoleto is a district of reduced size in the province of Umbria; pop. 70,011.-SPOLETO (anc. Spoletium or Spoletum), the capital, is situated on the side of a mountain overlooking the Tessino, about 75 m. N. from Rome; pop. about 7,000. It is defended by a strong castle, which is separated from the city by a very deep and narrow ravine crossed by a single bridge of great height. The city has a fine cathedral of marble, in the style of the early renaissance. Among its numerous ruins are those of an ancient theatre, of a temple of Concord, and a palace of Theodoric. There is also an old aqueduct attributed to the

Romans, and a triumphal arch called the "gate of Hannibal." The town has considerable trade in grain, wine, raisins, leather, and horses. Under the Romans Spoletium was a flourishing town of the province of Umbria. Hannibal was repulsed under its walls. After the fall of the western empire it fell into the power of the Goths, was taken from them by Narses, subsequently became the capital of a Lombard duchy, and in the 13th century was annexed to the Papal dominions. It was sacked by Frederic Barbarossa, and again destroyed by the Perugians in 1324. Napoleon I. made it the capital of the department of Trasimène. It has suffered much from earthquakes.

[ocr errors]

SPONDEE (Gr. omovon, a libation), a poetical foot of 2 long syllables. Verses exclusively spondaic have a slow movement, and consequent solemnity; such were sung by the Greeks on sacrificial occasions, and when a libation was offered, and hence the name. The spondee is used in any part of the English heroic line, but with the best effect in the first and last places. SPONGE, the familiar name of the family of spongiada or porifera, a division of animals of the so called class protozoa. It has long been a disputed point whether sponges are animals or vegetables; in the "Principles of Zoology,' by Agassiz and Gould (1848), they are said to belong to the vegetable kingdom; the most recent authorities, as Johnston and Bowerbank, decide in favor of their animal nature. Whatever may be the decision of this question, the common sponge (spongia, Linn.) may be taken as the type. These consist of a soft gelatinous mass, porous and elastic, supported on a fibro-corneous skeleton which anastomoses in all directions, and without silicious or calcareous spicula; they have no organs nor vessels, are capable of absorbing great quantities of fluid which is given out again on pressure, insensible to all kinds of irritation, and incapable of contraction or locomotion. The apparently homogeneous jelly which fills the pores of the living sponge and covers its surface, is seen under the microscope to be filled with numerous transparent spherical granules. There is a gradual passage from the soft sponges of commerce to those of stiff and compact texture, with the fibres loaded with silicious spicula, crumbling easily when dry, and useless in the arts; others are rather of a felted character, usually grayish white, and loaded with variously shaped spicula of carbonate of lime. Sponges vary much in form, and are fixed by a kind of root at the base, or incrust other bodies, growing mostly in groups; most are marine, but spongilla (Lam.) grows in fresh water; they often possess brilliant colors. Rounded orifices of large size, or oscula, are scattered over the surface of most sponges, which lead into sinuous canals permeating the substance in every direction; water is continually absorbed by the pores of the sponge, penetrating and filling every part, and, having supplied air and food, is driven out through the oscula; the currents

are kept up principally by the action of minute vibratile cilia, assisted, according to Dutrochet, by the act of endosmosis. Sponges are propagated sometimes by ciliated gemmules, yellowish and oval, arising from the organic mucus, and carried out of the substance by the ourrents; they are mostly formed in the spring, and, after swimming freely about for some time, become fixed and grow. They also produce internal, unciliated, oviform bodies, resembling winter ova, which, when thrown out, swell, burst, and give issue to the locomotive germs within; they are said also to grow by division, or growth of detached portions of the parent body; they are believed to be nourished by minute algae drawn within their pores. Some live in shallow, others in very deep water; scarce and small in cold latitudes, they increase in size and number toward the tropics, being most abundant in the Australian seas. The sponges of commerce are procured chiefly in the Mediterranean and the Bahama islands; they are obtained mostly by diving, to which persons are trained from childhood in the Greek islands; the adhesion is generally firm to the bottom, and the growth slow; the lime is removed by soaking in dilute muriatic acid, and they are then bleached and beaten for market. To bleach sponges, the finest and softest are selected, washed several times in water, and immersed in very dilute hydrochloric acid to dissolve out the calcareous matters; having been again washed, they aro placed in another bath of dilute hydrochloric acid to which 6 per cent. of hyposulphite of soda dissolved in a little warm water has been added; the sponge is left in this bath 24 hours, or until it is bleached as white as snow. Smyrna is the chief place for the export of fine sponges. The coarse sponges used for horses and carriages, &c., are obtained chiefly from the Bahamas; when taken from the water they have a sickish, disagreeable odor, which soon becomes putrefactive and disgusting, like decomposing animal rather than vegetable matter; they are first buried in dry sand, and when decomposition has ceased are exposed in wire cages to the action of the tide for purification. According to Dr. Bowerbank, there are 24 genera of sponges on the shores of Great Britain. While spongia is the type of the corneous sponges, thethys (Cuv.) and Grantia (Flem.) are types of the silicious and calcareous sponges respectively. (See PROTOZOA.) SPONSOR. See GODFATHERS AND GODMOTHERS.

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. COMBUSTION, SPONtaneous.

See

SPONTINI, GASPARO, an Italian composer, born in Jesi, in the Papal States, Nov. 17, 1778, died in Majolati, near Jesi, Jan. 14, 1851. He studied under Padre Martini at Bologna, and at 13 became a pupil of the conservatory La Pieta at Naples. At 17 he composed his first opera, I puntigli delle donne, which met with a decided success; and 9 years later he

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »