SCRIBE 



SCROFULA 



261 



are in long spikes, the female flowers in shorter 

 branches. The flowers are frequently gathered 

 before expanding, and Imiled with meat. Their 

 delightful and very powerful fragrance has made the 

 plant a favourite everywhere. Oil impregnated with 

 the odour of the flowers, and the distilled water of 

 them, are highly esteemed East Indian perfumes. 

 The seeds are eatahle ; and the fleshy part of the 

 drupes, which grow together in large heads, is 

 eaten in times of scarcity, as is the soft white base 

 of the leaves. The terminal buds are eaten like 

 those of palms. The spongy and juicy branches 

 are cut into small pieces as food for cattle. The 

 leaves are used for thatching, and their tough 

 longitudinal fibres for making mats and cordage. 

 The roots are spindle-shaped, and are composed of 

 tough fibres; they are therefore used by basket- 

 makers ; and in Japan they are also used as corks. 

 More valuable as a fibrous plant is an allied species, 

 P. sativus or P. Vacoa, the Vacoa of Mauritius, 

 which grows to a height of about 30 feet, but, 

 from continual cropping of its leaves, ig usually 

 dwarfed to 6 or 10 feet. The fibres of its leaves 

 are used for making the Vacoa bags, which rival 

 in cheapness and usefulness the gunny-bags of 

 India. The leaves are cut every second yenr. 

 Immediately on being cut off the leaves are split 

 into fillets, which are nearly an inch broad at the 

 base, but taper to a point, and are 3 or 4 feet long. 

 The aerial roots of the vacoa are so fibrous as to be 

 used for making paint-brushes for coarse purposes. 



Scribe ( Hel>. safer), among the Jews, originally 

 a kind of military otiicer, whose business appears to 

 have been the recruiting ami organising of troops, 

 the levying of war taxes, and the like. Later the 

 Hebrew name sofer seems to have been especially 

 In-stowed on a copyist of the law hooks (Gr. ifi-mii- 

 mateiu). After the exile, under Ezra, apparently 

 the copyist l>ecame more and more an expounder of 

 the law (Gr. nomodidaskiilox). In Christ's time 

 the name hail come to designate a learned man, a 

 doctor of the law. Christ himself reeognUes them 

 as a legal authority (Matt, xxiii. 2); they were 

 the preservers of traditions, and formed a kind of 

 police in the Temple ami synagogues, together 

 with the high priests ; and the people reverenced 

 them, or were expected to reverence them, in an 

 eminent degree. They were to be found all over 

 the country of Palestine, and occupied the rank 

 and profession of Iwth lawyers and theologians. 

 Their public field of action was thus probably 

 threefold: they were either assessors of the S:m 

 hedrini, or public teachers, or administrators and 

 lawyers. Many of these teachers had special class- 

 rooms somewhere in the Temple of Jerusalem, 

 where the pupils destined to the calling of a rabbi 

 sat at their feet. The calling of a scribe leing 

 gratuitous, it was incumlient upon every one of 

 them to learn and to exercise some trade. Those 

 scribes who were not eminent enough to rise to the 

 higher branches of their profession, to enter the 

 Sanhedrim, to be practical lawyers, or to hold 

 schools of their own, occupied themselves in copy 

 ing the Hook of the Law or the Prophets, in writ- 

 ing phylacteries, contracts, letters of divorce, and 

 the like. Much of the Halacha. Haggada, and 

 Minima was due to them. As a rule they were 

 Pharisees (q.v.), and, in their zeal to keep the law 

 pure from any foreign influence, even Chasidim 

 (<i.v. ). Amongst famous scrilies are to be reckoned 

 Ilillel, Shammai, and Gamaliel. 



See Jews, PHARISEES, EXEGESIS, MISHNA. TALMUD; 

 Uo the histories of the Jews by Ewald, Graetr., and 

 others ; and Schiirer'a ffiitory of the Jewish, People in the 

 Time oj Jem* Chritt (Eng. trans. 1886-90). 



Srrilie, AUOUSTIX EUGENE, a French dramatic 

 writer, son of a wealthy silkmercer of Paris, was | 



lx>rn in that city on 24th December 1791, and died 

 there on 20th February 1861. Although educated 

 for the legal profession, his whole life was given 

 to the 'manufacture' of stage-pieces of all kinds. 

 His first play that can be identified was a failure, 

 in 1811, and it was not until islii that he had any 

 success to boast of. From that time, however, his 

 productions were so greatly in demand by theatri- 

 cal managers that he established a sort of'dramatic 

 manufactory, in which numerous collaborateurs 

 were constantly at work under his supervision. 

 His plots are interesting and his dialogue light and 

 sparkling ; and not a few of his pieces have been 

 adapted for the English stage. As literature they 

 have little value. The l>est known are Le Verre 

 d'Eau, Adrienne Lecoiicreiir, Une Chaine, and 

 Batdilles cie Dames. Scrilie also wrote various 

 novels, and composed the libretti for a considerable 

 number of well-known operas, including Masaniello, 

 Fra IHavolo, Robert le Diable, Les Huguenots, Le 

 Prophete, and L'Afrieaine. His (Ettvres Completes 

 were published in 76 vols. in 1874-85. See Life by 

 Legouve, one of his assistants ( 1H74). 



Scriblerus. See ARBUTHNOT. 



Scribner, CHARLES, publisher, was born in 

 New Voik City, 21st February 1821, graduated at 

 Princeton in 1840, and in 1846 joined in founding 

 the publishing firm of Baker & Scribner. His 

 partner died soon after, and the firm became 

 Charles Scribner & Co. Hours at Home, first issued 

 in 1865, in 1870 was merged in Scribner's Maya- 

 zine, which was sold by the firm in 1881, and re- 

 christened the Century Magazine. Charles Scrib- 

 ner had died in 1871 (August 26), and the firm in 

 1879 became Charles Scribner's Sons ; and these in 

 1887 liegan a new Scribner's Mtiqazine, in addition 

 to their large publishing (as distinguished from 

 printing and publishing) business. 



Srrm-Iloos. See IVORY. 



Scrivener, FREDERICK HENRY AMBROSE, a 

 distinguished New Testament critic, was born at 

 Bermondsey in Suirey, September 29, 1813, and 

 had his education at St piave's, Southwark, and 

 Trinity College, Cambridge. For some time 

 assistant-master at Shcrborne, he was head-master 

 of Falmouth School from 1846 to 1856 (holding 

 part of the time the perpetual curacy of Penwerris), 

 and rector of Gerrans from 1861 till 1876, when he 

 was presented to the vicarage of Hendon and made 

 a preljendary of Exeter. One of the New Testa- 

 ment revisers from the l>egiiiniiig, he received a 

 Civil List pension of 100 in 1872, the St Andrews 

 LL.D. in the same year, and the Oxford D.C.L. 

 in 1876. His Plain Introduction to the Criticism 

 of the New Testament ( 1861 ) was at once admitted 

 to the rank of a standard authority. Among his 

 other books are liezae Codex Cantabrigiensis ( 1867 ), 

 Cambridge Paragraph Bible ( 1870-71 '), Six Popular 

 Lectures on the New Testament Text (1875), Codex 

 S. Ceaddae Lat. Eccl. Catli. Lich. (1887). He died 

 at Hendon, October 26, 1891. 



Scrivener's Palsy, another name for Writer's 

 Cramp. See CRAMP. 



Scrofula is a term whose significance has 

 varied much at different periods and in the 

 usage of different writers. In its widest sense at 

 the present day scrofula may be held to connote 

 a disturbed condition of nutrition characterised 

 by the occurrence of inflammatory or hvper- 

 plastic processes of a specific nature (see GERM 

 THEORY) in the various tissues of the body. The 

 tissues most frequently affected are the lymphatic 

 glands, joints, honea, skin, and mucous membranes. 

 The affection occurs most characteristically in the 

 young subject. The older physicians (Hippo- 

 crates, Celsus) restricted scrofula practically U> 



