614 



SMAKAlil'ITK 



>MI:ATON 



Christian era. It has l>een conjectured tlutt it was 

 one of the pestilences which occurred in Europe 

 during the ln-t and second centuries after that era; 

 but the first accurate description of it is tliut of 

 IHia/es, mi Araliian physician, who flourished 

 earlv in the KHli century. It ap|>ears to have 

 reached England towards the close of the Oth cen- 

 tury. After the Cmxades it prevailed in most of 

 the temperate countries of Kunipe, but did not 

 reach the northern countries of Norway, Lapland, 

 &c. for some time later. In 1517 it was carried 

 from Europe to St Domingo ; and three years later 

 it reochea Mexico, where it committed fearful 

 devastation)!, and whence it spread with intense 

 virulence throughout the New World. (According 

 to Robertson, three millions and a half of people 

 were destroyed in Mexico alone.) In 1707 it was 

 introduced into Iceland, when more than a fourth 

 part of the whole population fell victims to it ; and 

 it reached Greenland still later (1733), when it 

 spread so fatally as almost to depopulate the 

 country. These cases are striking illustrations of 

 the law that seems universally true, that a con- 

 tagious disease is always most virulent on its first 

 introduction to a new scene of action. At the 

 present day the interior of Africa, and especially 

 the upper basin of the Nile, seems to be the region 

 where smallpox is most destructive. In Europe it 

 is constantly present in most of the large cities ; 

 but during the 19th century i.e. since the 

 introduction of vaccination epidemics have been 

 much less frequent and severe than before. The 

 most intense and wide-spread was that of 1869-73 

 (see Report of Medical Officer of the Privy-council, 

 1874). Smallpox seems first to have l>een called by 

 that name in the 15th century ; pocket or pox (a 

 contracted plural of pock) having come to l>e 

 loosely used for several eruptive diseases, and 

 especially for ' French pox ' or syphilis. Till 

 Sydenham's time measles and scarlet fever were 

 frequently confounded with smallpox. 



SMALLPOX IN SHEEP ( Variola ovitut), although 

 resembling the smallpox of men, is a distinct 

 disease, not communicable either by contagion or 

 inoculation to men or children, or even to dogs or 

 goats. It prevailed as an epizootic in England 

 in 1277, was well known for more than 200 years 

 previous to that date, but in more modern times it 

 did not invade the country until 1847, when it 

 broke out in a farm near Windsor, and quickly 

 spread throughout Norfolk and the eastern counties. 

 and in the summer of 1862 in Wiltshire, near De- 

 vizes. It is common on the continent of Europe, 

 Variolous sheep or infected skins appear in both 

 cases to have iniported the disease from abroad. 

 Alxiut ten days after exposure to contagion the in- 

 fected sheep become feverish, have a muco-purulent 

 nasal discharge, and a hot tender skin. The red 

 pimple- which first appear in about three days be- 

 come, white, ami afterwards leave scabs or ulcers. 

 The weakness is great, and the mortality varies 

 from 25 to 90 per cent. Cood food and nursing are 

 the appropriate remedies. Promptly and carefully 

 must the sick l*> separated from the sound; Inn if 

 the spread of the disorder lie not thus immediately 

 checked the whole of the sound flock should be 

 (inoculated. The disease dm* artificially produced 

 appears in ten days, runs a mild course, occasions 

 a loss of from two to live per cent., and in three 

 weeks the disorder is got rid of and all risk of 

 contagion over. 



Hnaragditr, a peculiar variety of Amphihole 



iq.v. ), light 'grass-green in colour, with a foliated, 

 aim-liar, or fibrous structure. It occurs as a 

 constituent of the rock called Eklogite. 



Smart. Cuiasmi'iiKR, a hapless English poet, 

 was I >rn at Shipbourne in Kent, April 11, 1722, 



and was educated at Maidstone, Durham, and Pem- 

 broke Hull, Cambridge, of which he was elected 

 fellow in 1745. He won the Seatoniaii pri/e for 

 an English poem on the atti Unites of the Supreme 

 lleinj: live times, and left college on his marriage 

 to a step-daughter of John .NYwbcry's in I7.V2. !! 

 now became a bookseller's hack, and made for some 

 \eais a hard living betwixt improvidence, dissipa- 

 tion, and the expense of wife and children. Hi 

 mind at last gave way, yet he li\ed on, with a few 

 brief intervals of sanitv! till his death in the rules- 

 of the King's Bench, on 21st May 1771. Smart 

 was assisted by Samuel Johnson in hi- monthly 

 publication, The Unirerml I "mV or, and the moralist 

 preserved a kindly feeling for him in his misfor- 

 nines. 'I did not think he ought to be shut up.' 

 he said to Burney. 'His infirmities were not 

 noxious to society. He insisted on |>eople pia\ in;: 

 with him : and I 'd as lief pray ith Kit Smart as 

 any one else. Another charge wax that he did not 

 love clean linen : and I have no passion for it.' 



Smart's works include a numlier of feeble epi- 

 grams, birthday odes, und occasional poems; the 

 Hilliada. heavy .satire in answct to a criticism of 

 [Sir] John Hill's; a bald prose translation of 

 Horace (1756), well known to schoolboys ; a poor 

 poetical translation of Pha-drtis (1765), and a still 

 poorer metrical version of the Psalms (1765), of, 

 the Parables (1768). His poems were collected in 

 1791, but the editor was careful to exclude the 

 only thing that now claims a notice, A Song to 

 Itnnd (printed 1763; new cd. Is'.i.", ., some of the 

 stanzas of which are said to have been scratched 

 with a key on the walls of his madhouse. The poem 

 extends to a hundred stanzas, and is marred by 

 repetitions, and grievous defect* of rhythm and 

 structure, but it shows a genuine spark of true 

 poetic inspiration not common in its age, and it is 

 not too much to say that the poor poet here for 

 once 'had reached the zenith from his madhouse 

 cell.' Rossetti called it 'the only great accom- 

 plished poem of the last century ... A master- 

 piece of rich imagery, exhaustive resources, and 

 reverberant sound ; ' but the praise is extravagant. 

 Smart is one of the figures with whom Browning 

 holds his Parleying*, and supplies a chapter to Mr 

 (iosse in his Gossip in a Library ( 1892). 



Smart. HENRY, composer (nephew of Sir G. T. 

 Smart, 1776-1867, organist to the Chapel Royal). 

 as l>orn in 1813 and educated for the law. Hut 

 in 1831 he became an organist, and as such was 

 soon famous. As a composer he possessed a true- 

 vein of melody, and a symmetrical and elegant 

 style, his church music (e.g. Ave Maria) and bis 

 part songs (e.g. Lady, rise) being his best known 

 works. An opera, The Gnome of Hartzburq ; 8 

 secular cantata, The Bride, of Dtinkerron (1864); 

 and a sacred cantata, ./<//, were his most ambi- 

 tious compositions. He died 6th July 1879, not 

 having survived to enjoy a civil list pension of 

 100 that had teen granted to him. A Life by 

 llr Sparks was published in 1880. 



Smartweed, a name given to some of the 

 Milk worts (q.v.) on account of their acrid pro- 

 perties; especially the Polygonum Hydropiper, or 

 Water pepper. 



Sim-aton, JOHN, an eminent civil engineer, 

 was born at Austhorp near Leeds, 8th June 1724, 

 and early showed a bent towards mechanical pur- 

 suits. C)n leaving school, where he excelled in 

 geometry and arithmetic, he entered his father's- 

 office as law clerk ; but his heart was not in his 

 work, and about 1750 he removed to London, to- 

 commence business as a mathematical instru- 

 ment maker. In the following year his experi- 

 ments in mechanical invention were resumed. 

 His improvements on mill-work gained him th 



