330 



SERVIUS 



HKTON 



for doing, at hU own cost, any work which may 1 



II. '..'--;(> \ I'm ill.' ]>!ii|.t I II-.' .11 pleservation "1 ill.' 



servitude. Servitudes arc extinguished by express 

 release or the renunciation of tin- right in a Imlo 

 graph or tented writing ; by implied release, an the 

 extinction of either ilii- dominant nr servient tene- 

 ment ; by tin- two tenement- l>eing merged into the 

 property of one jierson; or hy nonuser, prolonged 

 for the prescriptive period, so as to imply abau 

 donment. See KASEMENT. 



S-rvins. a cpnimentator on Virgil and one of 

 the most intelligent of the Latin 'granimatici,' 

 lived at Koine aliout 400 A.D. Hut much of what 

 is ordinarily cited as his work is by later hands. 



Servilis Tllllilis. tin- sixth king of Rome 

 (q.v., Vol. VIII. p. 781, 787). 



Sesame, an annual herbaceous plant of the 

 genus Sesamuni, natural order Bignoniaceie, sub- 

 order Pedaliacere, a sub-order characterised hv 

 wingless seeds, and placenta* with woody loljes 

 attached to the inner wall of the fruit. The calyx 

 of Sesamuni is five-parted ; the corolla irregular 

 live-parted ; the stamens four, two longer than the 

 others, and a rudimentary lifth stamen ; the capsule 

 is oblong, almost four-celled, two-valved, many- 

 seeded. The species most worthy of notice is S. 

 i ml ii- a in, sometimes identified witli and some- 

 times distinguished from S. orientnle, a native of 

 India. Sesame is cultivated throughout the 

 East from Egypt to Japan for the sake of 

 the seeds, which yield by expression ginrjili-oil. 

 The oil is used in cookery as a substitute for 

 butter in the same way as olive-oil for lighting, 

 and for the purposes of lubrication. It is inodor- 

 ous, has a sweet taste, and keeps for years without 

 becoming rancid. In Egypt and Arabia it is pre- 

 ferred to olive-oil. It is used in connection with 

 medicine. Egyptian women consider it the best 

 of cosmetics and the most perfect preservative of 

 the hair. Nine pounds of the seeds yield two 

 quarts of the sweet oil. The sweet oleaginous 

 seeds are used in some countries, as in Central 

 Africa, for making a kind of hasty-pudding. The 

 oil-cake, mixed with honey and preserved citron, 

 is an oriental luxury. The leaves of Sesame 

 abound in a gutnmy substance, which they readily 

 impart to water, making a ricli bland mucilage, 

 which is used in the southern parts of the United 

 States (where it is grown a little) as a demulcent 

 drink. Sesame is sometimes called til-seed. 



Sesamoid Bones are small bones met with 

 in the substance of tendons in the neighbourhood 

 of certain joints. They derive their name from 

 their resemblance to grains of sesame. In the 

 human subject the patella is the best example ; 

 and besides it they are commonly met with on the 

 palmar aspect of the joint which unites the meta- 

 carpal l>one of the thumb with the first phalanx, 

 ana in the corresponding position in the great toe, 

 there being two in each |K>sition, and their object 

 '<> increase the leverage of the short flexor 

 muscles of the thumb and great toe. They are 

 much more numerous in the great majority of 

 mammals than in man. 



>><'-ostrif*, the (ireek name of a celebrated 

 Egyptian monarch, whose name has passed into 

 the series of those conquerors who have almost 

 achieved universal empire. According to the 

 U legendary history, Sesostris at the head of 

 a large army invaded Libya, Arabia, Asia (pene- 

 trating farther east than Darius), Euro|>e, Thrace, 

 and Scythia, leaving a colony at Col. 'his on his 

 return. In the south he subdued Ethiopia, and, 

 placing a fleet on the Red Sea, conquered the 

 adjacent isles, and extended his dominions to India 

 itelf. He, brought back with him large numbers 

 of captives, who were employed on public works, 



the building of temples, and the construction of 

 canals and mounds. Memorials of his reign were 

 left as steles or tablets in the conquered countries ; 

 Herodotus saw some in Palestine, which in reality 

 are supposed to have been the tablets of Kameses 

 II. Sewwtris is said to have grown inlirm and hlii..! 

 after a reign of thirty-three years, and to have 

 ended hi- days hy his own hand. There ban alwa\ - 

 existed the greatest divergence of opinion among'st 

 historians as to the identity of Sc-o-liis. ll.'iodo 

 tus places his reign long before that of Cheops..! 

 the 4th dynasty. Diea-archus makes him rule 371-J 

 B.C., and is followed by Aristotle and other authors. 

 I'.unsen supposes that there were more than one 

 monarch of this name, and that one was a king of 

 the 3d dynasty, another a king of the iL'th d\ na.-t v. 

 Lepsius conjectures that his exploits are confused 

 reminiscences of Sethos I. and Rameses II. of the 

 19th dynasty the most reasonable explanation. 



Sessa, a city of Southern Italy, 32 miles NW. 

 of Naples, has a fine cathedral, a theological 

 seminary, a technical college, and ruins (amphi- 

 theatre, baths, &c. ) of the luicienl XIHXMI Annm- 

 corum. On its hills was grown the famous 

 Falernian wine of the Romans. Pop. 5319. 



Sessions. See JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, QUAB- 

 TKK SESSIONS, COURT OF SESSION. 



Sestertius, a Roman coin, was the fourth part 

 of the Denarius (p-v.), and thus contained at first 

 2J ases or librce. The symbols for it were indiffer- 

 ently HS or IIS, the former being only a modifica- 

 tion of the latter, which expresses two units and S 

 for the additional half-unit (semt's). In the. Latin 

 classics the phrase xi-sti-rlin.i HIHHIIUIS, or merely 

 ii inn in us, is frequently employed to denote this 

 coin. When the denarius as made to contain 

 16 iixi.i the relation l>etween it and the sestertius 

 was preserved, and the latter from that time con- 

 tained 4 ascs. Till the time of Augustus, when 

 the relation of the denarius to the as was changed, 

 the sestertius was worth fully 2d., but after this, 

 about an eighth less. Si-xfri-fnini (iVfore Augustus 

 = 8, 15s. sterling) came to be used as if a neuter 

 singular for 1000 sesterces; but with a numeral 

 adverb attached, as cfecies tertci-tifiii. was used to 

 signify 100,000 sesterces. It WBJS the 'money of 

 account ' ( never a ' coin ' ) used in the reckoning 

 of large sums. HSX = decent millia sestertium: 

 HSIXI = decies tettertitim. 

 SestOS. See AHYDOS. 



Sestrl Ponente, a suburb of Genoa, :u miles 

 to the west, has shipbuilding -yards-, machine-shops, 

 and manufactures of tobacco, leather, &c., and in 

 the neighbourhood alabaster mines. Pop. 10,686. 



Sethltes, or SETHIANS, a division of the 

 Ophites (q.v.), described by Hippolytus, and so 

 called either from the part played by'Seth in their 

 cosmogony or from the fact t'hat their doctrines 

 were taught in a liook hear ing the name of Seth. 



Seton, in Surgery, is an artificially produced 

 sinus or channel, through which some substance 

 e.g. a skein of cotton or silk, or a long flat piece 

 of india-rubber or gutta-percha is passed so as to 

 excitestippuration, and to keej> theartificially formed 

 openings patent. (The term is, however, very often 

 employed todesignate the inserted material.) Setons 

 are established in the subcutaneous tissue of the 

 body (1) as counter-irritants, or (2) to act as a 

 drain on the system at large. For the purposes of 

 counter-irritation setons are usually inserted in 

 the neighbourhood of the affected parts : but when 

 intended to act as a drain on the system at large 

 e.g. in threatened head -affections the nape of the 

 peck is the part always selected. The operation 

 is very simple. A longitudinal fold of skin over 

 the spines of the cervical vertebra- is raised by the 



