SENSORIUM 



SEPTARIA 



317 



M. viva are also among the most sensitive species. 

 See the section on the movement of plants at 

 PLANTS ; also Dr G. Haberlandt, Das reizleitende 

 Gewebesystem der Sinnpflanze (Leip. 1890). 



St'iisorillin. the supposed centre of sensation 

 or seat of the soul, once believed to be some spot 

 in the brain.. See BKAIN, PINEAL GLAND, SENSA- 

 TION. 



Sentinel. Sentry ( from the Lat. sentire, ' to 

 feel or perceive,' through the Ital. sentinella), a 

 soldier or sailor marine at a point with tin: duty 

 of watching for the approach of an enemy, or 

 guarding the gun-park, camp, magazine, or other 

 locality. When an army is in the field its front 

 and flanks are protected by 'outposts.' These 

 consist of a chain of pickets (some fifty men 

 each), covered in front by the sentries they throw- 

 out, and assisted in rear by other bodies called 

 'supports.' Each picket would furnish two to 

 fuur double sentry posts, so that no portion of 

 ground along the front is umvatched. These 

 double sentry post* must be visible to one another 

 and to other sentries (single) who, posted over the 

 piled arms of each picket, report their signals. 

 Sometimes groups of three to six men, one watch- 

 ing, the rest lying down, are used instead of the 

 double sentries. If attacked, sentries fall back 

 on the pickets, and with them retire upon the 

 supports. Each is entrusted with the ' parole ' or 

 countersign, and no person, however exalted in 

 position, mav approach or pass him without giving 

 that as a signal. As the safety of the army de- 

 pends upon the vigilance of the sentries, the punish- 

 ment for sleeping when on sentry-duty ou active 

 service is death. 



Sentis. See SANTIS. 



Scnussi (Senuasiya), a Moslem confraternity of 

 austere and fanatical doctrines, which has done 

 much to unite the Mohammedan population of 

 North Africa in hostility and resistance to foreign 

 and inlidel influences. Mohammed es-Senussi 

 (' of the Semis mountains '), from Mostaganem in 

 Algeria, became famous about 1830 in Fez for 

 his sanctity. After performing the Haj to 

 Mecca he founded a convent at Alexandria, but 

 was excommunicated by the Sheikh ul-Islam and 

 settled in the Libyan Desert, first near Bengazi in 

 Barca, and then at Jerabub or Jaghbub near the 

 oasis of Siwa. Here he established a prosperous 

 college, and here in 1860 he died, being succeeded 

 by his son, who claimed to be the promised Mahdi 

 (q.r. ), though his manifestation was to be post- 

 poned till 1892. The confraternity has ramifica- 

 tions all over North Africa, especially in Tripoli, 

 l''-/.zan, and Gadames. The French have come 

 into contact with them ; their agents have re- 

 peatedly stopped European travellers ; and after 

 tin- death in 1885 of the Egyptian Mahdi, from 

 whom they had carefully held aloof, they acquired 

 additional influence in the Soudan. See Wingate, 

 MtAtKum mill tin' r./iii/il'mn Smlnn ( 1891 ) ; A. 

 Silva White, t'ruin SjJiin.,- In Urm-lr. ( 1898). 



SM)ni. a town in the Central Provinces of India, 

 half-way between N'agpurand Jabalpur on the great 

 Deccan road. Pop. 10,203. There is a smaller 

 Seoni (pop. 7100) 35 miles SW. of Hoshangabad. 



Seoul, or S6UL, the capital of Corea, stands on 

 the river Han, 75 miles from its entrance into the 

 Yellow Sea and 57 miles from its port Chemulpo 

 (q.v. ). It lies in a natural basin, amongst granite 

 lull -ranges, and is surrounded with walls. The 

 streets are very narrow and very dirty, and the 

 houses Wggarly in the extreme. The city includes 

 several wide, desolate squares. The royal palace 

 and it* adjuncts cover 600 acres of ground. Silk, 

 paper, tobacco, mats, fans, and similar commodities 



are the principal products of native industry. Pop. 

 150,000 ; including extensive suburbs, 300,000. 



Sepal. See CALYX, FLOWER. 



Separate Estate. See HUSBAND AND WIFE. 



Separation of married persons is either judi- 

 cial or voluntary. If the parties enter into a deed 

 or other arrangement to live separate, this is called 

 a voluntary separation, and in general the legal 

 rights of the parties are not altered, except that 

 if the wife is provided with maintenance she lias no 

 longer an implied authority to bind the husltaml. 

 And though voluntary separation is not encouraged 

 by courts of law, yet effect will be given frequently 

 to deliberate contracts of this kind entered into 

 between the parties. Formerly the intervention 

 of a trustee was in all cases necessary, but now an 

 arrangement made directly between husband and 

 wife is enforced by the English courts. In the 

 United States the law of several states confers the 

 right to contract, to maintain actions, &c. on a 

 married woman who, for good cause, is living apart 

 from her husband. See Stimson's American Statute 

 Law ; see also JUDICIAL SEPARATION. 



Sephardim. See ASHKENAZ. 



Sepharvaim. See BABYLONIA. 



Sepia, a brown pigment used as a water-colour. 

 It is prepared from the dark-brown colouring matter 

 of the ink-bag of a few species of Cuttle-fish i q.v. i, 

 particularly SepUi officinalis, which, though chiefly 

 fished for in the Adriatic and Mediterranean, is 

 also found in British seas. The pigment from the 

 dried ink-bags is dissolved in a. solution of ammonia 

 or soda and then precipitated by neutralising the 

 alkali with hydrochloric acid, the precipitate being 

 afterwards washed and dried. An ounce of the 

 natural pigment will darken several thousand 

 ounces of water. Sepia excels all other water- 

 colours in the ease with which its tints can be 

 evenly put on paper with a brush. It is much 

 used l>y itself for sepia drawings, and also in com- 

 bination with other colours for various subdued 

 tints. It is, however, not suitable for oil-painting. 

 Sepia is permanent when not exposed to sunshine. 

 Strange to say, the pigment from the ink-bags of 

 fossil cuttle-lish possesses the same colour and 

 character as that from recent species. An ' Indian 

 ink' is sometimes made from sepia. This sub- 

 stance appears to have been used both as an ink 

 and a pigment by the ancients. 



S<*poy, corrupted from the Persian sipahi, 'a 

 soldier,' denotes a native Hindu soldier as distin- 

 guished from a European (white) soldier (gora). 



Seps. See SKINK. 



Septaria are ovate, flattened nodules of argil- 

 laceous limestone or ironstone, internally divided 

 into numerous angular fragments by reticulating 

 fissures radiating from the centre to the circumfer- 

 ence, which are filled with some mineral substance, 

 as carbonate of lime or sulphate of barytes, that 

 has been infiltrated subsequent to their formation. 

 The fissures have been produced by the cracking of 

 the nodule when drying. They are largest and 

 most numerous in the centre, and gradually de- 

 crease outwards, showing that the external crust 

 had first become indurated, and so, preventing any 

 alteration in the size of the whole mass, produced 

 wider rents as the interior contracted. The radiat- 

 ing figure and the striking contrast between the 

 dark Ixwly of argillaceous limestone or ironstone 

 and the more or less transparent sparry veins when 

 the nodule is cut and polished have caused them 

 to be manufactured into small tables and similar 

 objects. Calcareous septarian nodules are exten- 

 sively employed in the manufacture of cement. 

 As they are composed of clay, lime, and iron, they 

 form a cement which hardens under water, and 



