STILLWATER 



STING-RAY 



731 



presented him to the rectory of St Andrews, 

 Holborn ; he was also appointed preacher at the 

 Rolls Chapel, and shortly after lecturer at the 

 Temple, and Chaplain in Ordinary to Charles II. 

 In 1670 he became Canon Residentiary, in 1678 

 Dean, of St Paul's. In the Court of Ecclesiastical 

 Commission instituted hy James II. Stillingfleet 

 declined to act ; and after the Revolution of 1688 

 he was raised to the bishopric of Worcester. He- 

 died at Westminster on 27th March 1699, and was 

 buried in Worcester Cathedral. So handsome in 

 person as to have been popularly called ' the beauty 

 of holiness,' he had, Burnet tells us, a reserved and 

 haughty temper. But he was courteous and tem- 

 perate in debate, and he had the rare merit for a 

 theologian of being capable of appreciating the 

 courtesy of an opponent. Thus, in tne controversy 

 that grew out of his Mischiefs of Separation ( 1680), 

 he candidly confessed himself overcome by the 

 answer of John Howe, who, he said, wrote 'more 

 like a gentleman than a divine, without any 

 mixture of rancour.' Other works were his Origines 

 Britannicte, or Antiquities of the British Churches 

 ( 1685), and a defence of the doctrine of the Trinity 

 (1697). His collected works, with Life by Dr 

 Timothy Godwin, were published in 1710 (6 vpls. 

 folio); a supplementary volume of Miscellanies, 

 edited by his son, in 1735. See Tulloch's Rational 

 Theology in the Seventeenth Century (vol. ii. 1872). 



Stillwater, capital of Washington county, 

 Minnesota, on the navigable St Croix River (which 

 here expands into a narrow lake), 18 miles by rail 

 NE. of St Paul. It has a large lumber trade, 

 and contains sawmills, a foundry, and flour-mills. 

 Pop. (1870) 4124 ; (1890) 11,260. 



&t\\t(Hiintmtonii*), a widely distributed genus 

 of wading-birds belonging to the Snipe family 

 (Scolopacidae). They have long slender bills and 

 very long wings and legs, the length of the legs 

 being almost equal to that of the body. The 

 Black- winged Stilt (H. candidus) has been occa- 

 sionally met with in Britain, but is only a rare 

 summer visitor, though it breeds in Holland and 

 southern Europe. The prevailing colours of plum- 

 age among the stilts are black and white, but a 

 pure black species inhabits New Zealand. 



Stilton, a village of 650 inhabitants in the 

 north of Huntingdonshire, 6 miles SW. of Peter- 

 borough. It gives name to the well-known Cheese 

 (q.v., p. 142), most of which now is of course manu- 

 factured elsewhere. 



Stilts, poles with steps or supports at a suffi- 

 cient distance from the lower end to allow a man 

 standing on the steps to walk clear of the ground 

 and with longer strides. Useful in all marshy 

 lands, they were in old days specially serviceable 

 in the French Landes (q.v.), where the shepherds 

 practically spent the whole day on stilts. Else- 

 where they serve for crossing streams (as the upper 

 Tweed and Clyde), for a (somewhat dangerous) 

 pastime for boys, and for displays of acrobatic 

 skill. At Namur one of the diversions of the 

 carnival was a tournament between bodies of men 

 mounted on gtilte. 



Stimulants are agents which increase the 

 activity of the vital functions generally, or of one 

 system or organ. Their action is usually under- 

 stood as being transient and rapid, but need not 

 necessarily be so. They are most commonly em- 

 ployed to act on the central nervous and circulatory 

 systems, but hepatic, renal, and gastric stimulants 

 are also common terms in medicine. Popularly 

 only those which act on the nervous and circulatory 

 systems are well known, and include alcohol in 

 the form of wines and spirits, sal-volatile, smelling- 

 salts and other preparations of ammonia, besides 

 ether, camphor, various preparations of lavender, 



peppermint and other essential oils, ginger, &c. 

 Cold and electricity also act as stimulants. They 

 are useful in fainting, nervousness, shock, hysteria, 

 and similar conditions. See the articles on ALCO- 

 HOL, ELECTRICITY (MEDICAL), &c. 

 Sting-fish. See WEEVER. 



Stinging-animals. In many different ways 

 animals have the power of stinging. To begin 

 with the minutest, it is likely that the-trichocysts 

 of the slipper-animalcule ( Paramcecium ) have some 

 such power. Almost all the Ccelenterates, such as 

 jellyfish and Portuguese-man-of-war, have Sting- 

 ing-cells (q.v.), and in a few Turliellarians the 

 same recur, while the dorsal papillae of some Nudi- 

 branch Gasteropods seem to sting the mouths of 

 animals which try to eat them. The stings of 

 ante, bees, and wasps and some other Hymenoptera 

 are abdominal structures, perhaps vestiges of 

 appendages, and they are associated with a poison- 

 secreting gland. The poison of spiders is lodged 

 in the chelicene or first pair of oral appendages. 

 The sting of the scorpion consists of a double 

 poison-gland lodged in the sharply pointed seg- 

 ment or ' telson which lies behind the anus at 

 the end of the tail. The sting- rays ( Trygonidse ) 

 and the sting-fish or weevers ( Trachinus ) have no 

 special poison-glands, but it is likely that the slime 

 which enters into the ngly wounds caused by their 

 sharp spines is in part the cause of the inflamma- 

 tion which follows. Among the Scorpsenidse the 

 genus Synanceia has a poison-bag in each of the 

 dorsal spines. Finally, the stinging powers of the 

 venomous snakes are due to the modification of 

 one of the salivary glands on each side as a poison- 

 gland and to the adaptation of the teeth as fangs. 

 In the poisonous Mexican lizard Heloderma an 

 approach to a similar specialisation occurs. See 

 also POISON. 



Stinging-cells, or CNIDOBLASTS or NEMATO- 

 CVSTS, are characteristic of all Coelenterata except 

 Ctenophores. To them the jelly-fish, Portuguese- 

 man-of-war, sea-anemones, and the like owe their 

 power of stinging. They protect their possessors 

 against some of their enemies and they serve to 

 benumb or kill the small animals on which most of 

 the Cojlenterates feed. Each stinging-cell contains 

 a long coiled lasso or cnidocil bathed in poisonous 

 fluid ; at the base of the cavity in which the lasso 

 lies there is a little living matter and a nucleus ; 

 projecting from the surface there is often a small 

 trigger-like peak. When the cell is stimulated, 

 in some cases at least 

 by nervous impulse 

 from adjacent nerve- 

 cells, the lasso, which 

 is many times the 

 length of the cell, 

 is rapidly everted. 

 After this has taken 

 place the cell dies. 

 Often thecnidoblasts 

 are grouped in little 

 ' batteries ' especially 

 abundant on the ten- 

 tacles or similar 

 structures. They are 

 usually situated on 

 the external ecto- 

 derm, but are some- 

 times endodermic. 

 Similar cells occur in 

 some Turbellarian 

 Worms. SeeCozLEN- 

 TERATA, HYDRA. 



Sting-ray (Try- 



ffon), a genus of cartilaginous fishes, of the order 

 of Rays (q.v.) and family Trygonidse. The long 



Sting-ray ( Trygon pastinaca). 



