660 



SPREE 



SI-RING 



been discovered. It was for a long time unknown, 

 hMMM the adult sprats taken in estuaries are 

 scarcely ever in breeding condition. Itut it liaa 

 now been proved by Victor Hcnsen <>f tin- l.ciman 

 Fishery Commission, and by J. T. Cunningham of 

 the Marine Biological Association, that the eggs of 

 tin' sprat are pelagic, like those of the pilchard 

 Le. tfiat they Hoat in the sea and are hatched in 

 that condition. The eggs have been taken Inith in 

 (iennany and at Plymouth in England from tin 

 ripe female sprat, and proved to be identical in all 

 respects with float ing eggs previously obtained from 

 the surface-waters of the sea. Perfectly ripe sprats 

 are only found in the sea, to which they repair 

 for the purpose of spawning, not, however, wan- 

 dering very far from land. On the south coast 

 of England at Plymouth the sprat spawns from 

 Deceinlier to May, but in the Firth of Forth and 

 east coast of Scotland in May or June. The young 

 sprats are found, together with young herrings, in 

 estuaries, such as the Thames, Forth, Exe, Tanmr, 

 &c., and are taken in large numbers to be con- 

 sumed as whitebait. Sprats almund especially on 

 the coasts of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Kent in 

 November and several following months. Drift- 

 nets are used for the capture of sprats off the coast 

 of Kent, but the usual instrument for the purpose 

 is the stow net worked from a moored boat in 

 estuaries and tide-ways. The stow-net is a large 

 bag-net suspended between two horizontal beams 

 DMMth the boat, and about a fathom from the 

 bottom of the water ; ropes from the ends of the 

 upper Iwam enabling the fisherman in the boat to 

 keep the mouth of the bag always open and against 

 the tide. Vast quantities of sprats are taken in 

 this way, so that they are used as manure by 

 farmers, although London is also very largely 

 supplied with them, and being sold at a very cheap 

 rate they are a favourite article of food 'of the 

 poorer classes. The Firth of Forth also produces 

 sprats in Scotland called garoies so ahumhintlv 

 tiiat they are sold both in Edinburgh and Glasgow 

 by measure, and cheaper than any other kind of 

 lish. But there are many parts of the British coast 

 where the sprat is rare, some of these being parts 

 where the herring is plentiful. Notwithstanding its 

 cheapness the sprat is a very fine fish, of flavour 

 ouite equal to the herring, although decidedly 

 different. Dried sprats are a very common article 

 of provision, and sprats are also sometimes salted. 

 The kilkie* brought from Rijja and other ports on 

 the Baltic are sprats cured with spices, as also are 

 the 'Norwegian Anchovies' sent in small wooden 

 barrels from Norway to England. The value 

 of the sprat does not seem to be as yet fully appre- 

 ciated in Britain. Very closely allied to the sprat 

 is another fish ( Cliipea latula), the Blamim-lt,' of 

 the French, which is caught in great abnncUuica on 

 some parts of the west coast of France, other 

 allied species are found in other seas. One of 

 them ((.. humeralis), which abounds in the \Ve-t 

 Indies, and southwards as far as Rio Janeiro, is 

 much esteemed, but becomes poisonous at certain 

 seasons, from some unknown cause. The prepared 

 Sardine (q.v.) is frequently a sprat. 



Spree, a river of Prussia, rises in the east of 

 Saxony, on the borders of Bohemia, and after a 

 winding course of 227 miles, but bearing generally 

 north and north-west, falls into the Havel (q.v.) at 

 Spandau. Area of drainage basin, 3655 sq. in. 

 'I lie principal towns on its banks are Bautzen, 

 Kotthus, and Berlin. By the Frederick -William 

 or Miillrose Canal it is connected with the Oder. 

 A couple of short canals assist navigation near 

 Berlin, and in 1H90 it won propo-.-d to s|>end close 

 upon 1,000,000 in deepening the river and its 

 approaches in that cily HO as to afford easy com- 

 munication from the Oder to the Elbe, in the 



Spreewald, a district near Kpttbus much cut up by 

 tin- interlacing arms of the river, there still exists 

 a colony of \\ ends. 



Spreilgel. KritT, physician and botanist, 

 born at Boldekow in Pomenmia on 3d Au 



was 



_- August 



1760, and died at Halle on 15th March 1833. All 

 hU life was spent in quiet labour at Halle, from 

 1789 as professor of Medicine and from 1797 at. pro- 

 fessor of Botany. He won a reputation as a writer 

 on the history of medicine and as a student of the 

 anatomical structure and functions of plants. His 

 principal books are Pragmatitche Geschichte der 

 Ar:nrikunde (5 vols. 1792-1803), Getcfiichte der 

 Botanik (2 vols. 1817-18), and Neve Entdeckungen 

 im ganzen Umfang der Pflanzenkunde (3 vols. 

 1819-22). Rosenbaum edited in 1844 Sprengel's 

 Opuscula Academiea, with a biography. 



Sprenger. ALOYS, an orientalist, was born 3.1 

 September 1813 at Nassereit in Tyrol, studied 

 medicine, the natural sciences, and the oriental 

 languages at Vienna, next at London assisted 

 Count Minister, and in 1843 sailed to Calcutta. 

 For many years he was incessantly active as 

 teacher, interpreter, librarian, and translator, 

 until in 1857 he was called to be professor of 

 Oriental Languages at Bern. In 1881 he settled at 

 Heidelberg. His rich collection of Arabic, Persian, 

 Hindustani, and other MSS. and books are now 

 in the Royal Library at Berlin. The most im- 

 portant of Sprenger's numerous works are Leben 

 11 nil Lehre des Mohammed (3 vols. 1861-65), Dit 

 Alte (Jeoarap/tie Arabians (1875), and liabylonien 

 (1886); besides editions of Arabic and Persian 

 works, as Sadi's GulMun, &c. Died Dec. 19, 1893. 

 Sprenger, JACOB, of the Order of Preachers, and 



frofessor of 'Iheology in Cologne, and HKMUOITS 

 NSTITOK (Latinised form of Kramer), two names 

 of enduring infamy as the authors of the famous 

 Mallem Malejicaram or Herniliiii>i<,-r (1489), 

 which first formulated in detail the doctrine of 

 witchcraft, and formed a text-book of procedure 

 for witch-trials. They were appointed inquisitors 

 under the bull ' Snmniis desiderantes affectihus ' of 

 Innocent VIII. in 1484, and their work is arranged 

 in three parts Things that pertain to Witchcraft; 

 The Effect* of Witchcraft; and The Remedies for 

 Witchcraft. It discusses the question of the nature 

 of demons; the causes why they seduce men, and 

 particularly women ; transformations into beasts, 

 as wolves and cats; and the various charms and 

 exorcisms to he employed against witches. The 

 writers detail the extraordinary dangers to which 

 they were exposed in their ta.s'k, and how all tin- 

 artillery of hell had been employed against them- 

 selves in vain, and they tell wi'tli complete com- 

 |iosiire of mind how in one place forty, in another 

 lifty, persons were burned by their means. They 

 admit bodily transmission of sorcerers through the 

 air, and relate numerous cases of the devilish 

 malice of witches upon horses and cattle as well as 

 mankind; and in the latter part, consisting of 

 thirty-live questions, give minute directions for the 

 manner in which prisoners are to be treated, the 

 means to be used to force them to a confession, and 

 lie degree of evidence required for a conviction of 

 those who would not confess. The lxx>k contains 

 10 distinct allusion to the proceedings at the 

 Witches' Sabbath any more than did the Formicar- 

 ium (c. 1440) of John Nider, whose fifth book is 

 levoted to the subject of sorcery. 



Spring. See SKASONS. 



Spring, a stream of water issuing from the 

 eartn. The source of springs is the rain and snow 

 that falls from the clouds. Very little of the 

 water precipitated in any district finds its way 

 mniediat?ly by rivers to the sea; the great pro- 

 rartion either sinks into the earth or is evaporate! 



