768 



STKKI'SIPTKKA 



STHIGAU 



Strepsiptero, jH-ouliar insects referred by 

 some to a special order, ranked by others aiming 

 the Coleoptera. The females are bliiul iiiul wm in 

 like parasites, living inside various l-es ami wasps. 

 but the inliilt males are free, with small twisted 

 fore-wings and longitudinally-folded hind-wings. 

 The lame, hatched within die adult bee or wasp, 

 emerge and infest the grul>s. 



Sirrptororcus. See BACTERIA. 



Stress. See STRAIN. 



Sirrf Ion. lli.si-. \. the pen-name of Sarah Smith, 

 novelist and popular writer for the young, who was 

 liorn at Wellington, Shropshire, where her father 

 was a bookseller. Her first manuscript was accepted 

 by Charles Dickens, and published in ffotuMoU 

 Worth, to which she continued to contribute, as 

 also to All the Year Hnniul, until the death of its 

 founder, whom she had found the most generous 

 and sympathetic of editors. Jessica's First Prayer, 

 published by the London Tract Society in 1867, and 

 followed by a long series of semi-religious stories, 

 interesting and pathetic, made her name a house- 

 hold word. She has published over forty juvenile 

 stories and novels. 



Strickland. AGNES, historian, was born at 

 Reydon Hall near Southwold, Suffolk, August 

 19, 1806. She had begun verse-making ere her 

 twelfth year, and had issued several volumes of 

 poetry when the idea occurred to her of writing 

 historical biographies of the queens of England. 

 The surest ion came from some interesting bio- 

 graphies of female sovereigns written for a period- 

 ical by her sister Elizabeth (1794-1875). A start 

 was made, and the first two volumes were pub- 

 lished by Colburn and had a rapid sale ; a mis- 

 understanding between author and publisher was 

 healed by Coiburn's offer of 150 jier volume until 

 tin- work was completed ( 12 vols. 1840-48 ; new ed. 

 6 vols. 1864-65 ; abridged ed. 1867). In the produc- 

 tion of this work she was assisted by her sister 

 Elizabeth, though only the name of Agnes appears 

 on the title-page. The work was dedicated to 

 Queen Victoria, and as each volume appeared 

 ite picturesque style and anecdotical character 

 made it a general favourite, though the Quarterly 

 lie-view complained of a poverty of style and an 

 equally pervading feebleness of thought, while the 

 limes said it possessed 'the fascination of a 

 romance united to the integrity of a history.' 

 Miss Strickland, whose volumes give vivid pictures 

 of the court and domestic life of the various 

 period*, had strong opinions as to ecclesiastical gov- 

 ernment and royal prerogative, and was a partisan 

 of the Stuarts. A civil list pension was conferred 

 upon her in 1870. She died 8th July 1874. Agnes 

 Strickland also wrote several novels and juvenile 

 tales. Other works, written jointly with her sister 

 Elizabeth, were Lives of the Queens of Scotland 

 < 1830-59), Lives of the Seven Bishops ( \ 866 ), Lives 

 of the Tudor Princesses ( 1 868 ). The remaining works 

 from the pen of Agnes were Victoria from Birth to 

 Bridal (1840) : Letters of Mary Queen of Scots, in 

 whose innocence she believed (1842-43; new <<!. 

 1864); Bacliclor Kings of England (1861); Lives 

 of the Last Four Stuart Princesses (1872). Her 

 Life of Mary Queen of Scots (2 vols. 1873) was 

 a redaction from the volumes in the Queens of Scot- 

 land. See Life, by her sister Jane ( 1887). 



Stricture is a term employed in Surgery to 

 denote an unnatural contraction, either congenital 

 or acquired, of a mucous canal, such as the urethra, 

 (esophagus, or intestine. When, however, the 

 affectea part is not mentioned, and a person is 

 stated to suffer from stricture, it is always the 

 nrethral canal that is referred to. Contraction of 

 this canal may be either permanent or transitory ; 

 the former is due to a thickening of the walls of 



tin 1 urethra in consequence of orgiuiir deposit, and 

 is hence termed orpinic .stiietiire; \\liiletlie hitter 

 nmy Kcdiie either to local inflammation or conges- 

 tion, or to iilinormul muscular nctioii : the first ot 

 these varieties may lie termed inflammatory or 

 congestive stricture, and the second spasmodic 

 stricture. The last-named form seldom exists 

 except as a complication of the other kinds of 

 stricture. There are two principal causes of or- 

 ganic siiirtuic the first being inflammation of the 

 canal, and the second injury by violence. Inflam- 

 mation is by far the most common cause, and 

 gonorrhoea is the common agent by which it is 

 excited. Not unfrequentlv stimulating injections 

 thrown into the uretlira with the view of checking 

 the gonorrhoeal discharge excite an inflammatory 

 action which gives rise to stricture. Fortunately 

 it is only in exceptional cases that a stricture 

 results from inflammation of the uretlira, the 

 inflammation, in the great majority of cases, ter- 

 minating by resolution, and leaving the canal as 

 healthy as before the attack. It is v/hen the 

 complaint assumes a chronic character that it most 

 commonly lays the foundation of strioture. Stric- 

 ture from the second cause arises fror/i such causes 

 as falling across spars, scaffolding, 'adders, \r., or 

 from Home sharp object which punctures the peri- 

 n.-eum e.g. earthenware vessels w,iich break under 

 the sitter. 



The earlier symptoms of stri.Uire are a slight 

 urethra! discharge and pain in the canal liehiml 

 the seat of the stricture at the time of micturition. 

 The stream of urine does not pass in ite ordi- 

 nary form, but is flattened or twisted; and as the 

 disease advances it become smaller, and ulti- 

 mately the fluid may only l>e discharged in drops. 

 The straining efforts to discharge the urine often 

 induce Tenesmus (q.v.). 



As the case advances the urine becomes alkaline 

 and ropy, and deposits a precipitate when ulU.wed 

 to stand ; and attacks of complete retention of 

 urine occur with increasing frequency, lint these 

 symptoms are not in themselves sufficient to estab- 

 lish the presence of stricture. It is necessary to 

 examine the urethral canal with a Catheter (q.v.) 

 or Bougie (q.v.) to ascertain whether an organic 

 obstruction exists, whether one or more strictures 

 are present (as many as eight have l>een recorded, 

 although four are rare, and one is the most common 

 mi m her), and their calibre. The treatment of or- 

 ganic stricture is too purely surgical to be discussed 

 in these pages. It is sufficient to state that its 

 object is twofold viz. first, to restore the natural 

 calibre of the canal so far as this can lie safely 

 effected ; and secondly, to maintain this patency 

 after it has been established. 



Spasmodic stricture usually occurs as a compli- 

 cation of organic stricture or of inflammation of 

 the mucous membrane, but may arise from an 

 acrid condition of the urine, from the administni 

 tion of cant ha rides, turpentine. &c. , and from the 

 voluntary retention of urine for too long a time. 

 The treatment consists in the removal of the causes 

 as far as possible and the hot bath. The inhalation 

 of chloroform sometimes gives immediate relief ; 

 and several cases are recorded in which when the 

 spasm occurred periodically it was cured by c|uininc. 

 Inflammatory or congestive stricture commonly 

 arises when a recent purulent discharge from the 

 urethra has been checked by external cold or wet. 

 The patient complains of heat, fullness, and soreness 

 in the perimeum ; the passage of the urine is ex- 

 tremely painful, the stream being small and ceasing 

 before the bladder empties. The treatment is 

 much the same as that for retention of Urine (q.v.). 



M risiJiii. a town of Prussian Silesia, 25 miles 

 SE. of Liegnitz, with granite-quarries, and manu- 

 facture of brushes, whips, sugar, &c. Pop. 11,784. 



