B12 



SLUTSK 



SMALLPOX 



back sharply keeled. There are several of the 

 genus Arion, differing from Liuiax in tlie more 

 anterior position of the respiratory orifice, and the 

 possession of a caudal shine-gland. The Black 

 Slug (A. ater or empiricorum) fa a very large 

 species, varying much in colour, being black, 

 white, black with white sides, black with a red 

 fringe, brown, brown with yellow Hides, red, gray, 

 or yellow. The red variety is called the Red Slug, 

 ana was considered by Linnaeus a distinct species. 



Fig. 2. Slugs : 



a, AorMimax aaratii; b, Arion; c, Arion cmpirimntm, at rest ; 

 d, It* eggi. 



The Striped Garden Slug (A. hortensis) is a small 

 species common in gardens ; it has the under side 

 of the foot yellow or orange. The Irish Slug 

 (Geomolacus maculosus) fa only found in County 

 Kern,-, Ireland, and in Portugal. Slugs do great 

 damage to garden crops, and various methods nave 

 been devised for destroying them. They may be 

 sought under stones or boards, or enticed by decay- 

 ing cabbage-leaves, or collected while on the move 

 at night, or in wet weather. They are readily 

 killeaby salt water. They lay their eggs, which 

 often resemble small oval bags of jelly, in clusters 

 in moist places. Slugs frequently climb trees, and 

 some of them, especially the Tree Slug, have the 

 power of descending by means of threads of mucus. 

 The name Slug is often applied by gardeners to the 

 larvae of saw-flies (Tenthreuinidne). 



Sliitsk, a town or large agricultural village of 

 Russia, 60 miles S. of Minsk. Pop. 19,208. 



Sluys. a town of Holland, province Zealand, 

 on a bay of the North Sea, 6 miles NE. of Bruges. 

 In the middle ages it was a seaport of some 

 importance, but it is most celebrated for the naval 

 battle fought off the shore between the English 

 and the French on 24th June 1340, in which 

 Edward III. won a complete victory. Pop. 2631. 



Smack, a generic term for small decked or half- 

 decked coasters and fishing-vessels. Most smacks 

 are rigged as cutters, sloops, or yawls. 



Smalrald. See SCHMAI.K M.DKN. 



Small-arms include all weapons that can be 

 actually carried by a man. They are described 

 iindiT their respective heads, BAYONET, FlREAKMS, 



PISTOL, REVOLVER, SPEAR (or Lance), RIFLE, 

 OWORD. Small-arms are manufactured for the 

 British government at Enfield and Birmingham. 



Small Debts is a phrase current in Scotland 

 IM ilenote debts under 12, recoverable in the 

 Sheriff Court (see SIIKKIKK). In England the 

 same debts are recoverable in the County Court 

 (q.v.). See DKBT, Vol. III. p. 718. 



Small Holding*. See ALLOTMENTS, PEAS- 

 ANT PsoranToarop. 



Smallpox, or VARIOLA, is one of the most 

 formidable of the class of febrile diseases known as 

 the Eranthemata (q.v.). The period of incubation 

 (see under MEASLES) is generally twelve days. 



All cases of regular smallpox are divisible into 

 three stages viz. (1) that of the initial or erup- 

 tive fever; (2) that of the progress and matura- 

 tion of the specific eruption; and (3) that of the 

 decline. The course of an ordinary case of discrete 

 smallpox i.e. one where the pocks remain through- 

 out distinct from each other will first be descrilx'd, 

 and afterwards the other forms will l>e discussed. 

 The first stage begins with rigors, followed by 

 heat and dry ness of the skin, a quickencil pul-e. 

 furred tongue, loss of appetite, pain in the pit of 

 the stomach, with nausea, vomiting, headache, 

 and often pains in the l>ack and limits. The 

 violence of the pains in the back, and the obsti- 

 nacy of the vomiting, are frequently vcrv well 

 marked and characteristic symptoms. In children 

 the disease fa often ushered in by convulsions ; 

 while delirium sometimes attends its outset in 

 adults. On the third day minute red specks begin 

 to come out first on the face ( where they are always 

 most numerous), then on the neck and wrists, and 

 on the trunk of the body, and lastly, on the lower 

 extremities. These correspond to the incipient 

 pocks, which can be felt like small shot under the 

 skin, better, sometimes, than they can be seen. 

 The fever, pain, sickness, &c. usually begin to 

 subside as soon as the eruption appears, and by 

 the beginning of the fifth day, when the eruption 

 fa generally fully out, and the second stage com- 

 mences, have entirely disappeared. Upon the second 

 or third day of the eruption a little clear lymph fa 

 seen in each pimple, wnich has increased consider- 

 ably in size since its first appearance, and which fa 

 thus converted into a vesicle. The vesicles gradually 

 increase in breadth, and, their contents becoming 

 more and more yellow and opaque, are converted 

 into pustules. These are at first depressed in the 

 centre, but at their fullest development often 

 become turgid and hemispherical. The suppura- 

 tion on the face fa complete by alxrat the ninth or 

 tenth day from the commencement of the fever, 

 and the same process rapidly follows in the other 

 parts of the boay in the same order of succession 

 as that in which the eruption originally appeared. 

 The progress of the pustules is usually accompanied 

 by swelling of the skin of the face, with a painful 

 sensation of heat and tension ; the scalp fa often 

 swollen ; soreness of the mouth from a modified 

 eruption there fa often present; and the patient 

 exhales a peculiar and disagreeable odour. About 

 the eighth or ninth day of the disease a recurrence 

 of the fever, known as the fever of maturation, or 

 secondary fever, sets in, with a return of headache, 

 restlessness, and sometimes delirium. The third 

 or dei-liiiiinj stage fa little more than a period of 

 convalescence. About the eleventh or twelfth day 

 the pustules on the face become brown and dry at 

 the top, or some of them break, and the fluid which 

 oozes out solidifies into a yellowing crust; and from 

 this time the process of desiccation goes on, the 

 swelling of the face subsides, and at last only dry 

 walls remain, which gradually fall off altout the 

 fifteenth or sixteenth day. It is not till three or 

 four days after the scabs have formed on the face 

 that the same process is completed over the whole 

 body. The scabs are usually completely gone bj 

 the twenty-first day, leaving behind them blotches 

 of a reddish -brown colour, which sometimes con- 

 tinue for some months liefore they quite disappear ; 

 and some of the pustules, in consequence of ulcera- 

 tion of the true skin, may leave pits, especially on 

 the face, which remain permanently. The period 

 of scabbing is accompanied by various symptoms 

 of improvement : the tongue Ix-eomes clean, the 

 appetite returns, and by the time that the scabs 

 have fallen off the patient may l>e regarded as 

 restored to health ; so that the entire course of a cose 

 of discrete smallpox occupies about three weeks. 



