STRIKE 



STRONTIUM 



769 



Strike* a terra borrowed by geologists from the 

 German streichen, ' to extend,' and adopted with 

 the technical meaning it has in that language. It 

 is applied to the direction of the outcrop of a 

 stratum the line which it makes when it appears 

 at the surface of the earth. This line is always 

 at right angles to the dip of the bed. The angle of 

 dip and the direction of strike are determined by 

 a clinometer and compass. A perfectly horizontal 

 stratum can have neither dip nor strike. 



Strikes. See COMBINATION, TRADE-UNIONS. 



Strindberg, AUGUST, the most prominent 

 figure in modern Swedish literature, was born at 

 Stockholm on 22d January 1849, and became 

 successively 'schoolmaster, actor, physician, tele- 

 graph employe, civil servant, painter, preacher, 

 private tutor, and librarian of the state,' all to 

 get his experience at first hand. The first book 

 of his that made its mark was The Red Room 

 ( 1879), a bitter satire upon conventional (Swedish) 

 society. This made its author enemies, and to 

 their attacks he replied in another stinging satire, 

 The New Kingdom (1882); but after its publica- 

 tion he had to go into voluntary banishment, 

 and has ever since lived abroad. Two years later 

 he published a collection of short stories (Married 

 Life), in which he describes all sorts and condi- 

 tions of nuptial alliances with cynical frankness. 

 Accused of outraging Christianity in this book, 

 Strindberg repaired to Stockholm, stood his trial, 

 and after making an eloquent defence was acquitted. 

 His next important work was a plea for the social- 

 istic conception of society in Utopias in the Real 

 World (1885). Two books descriptive of the life 

 and manners of the inhabitants of the Stockholm 

 skerries The People of Hemsii (1887) and Life of 

 the Skerry-Men ( 1888 ) are probably the best things 

 lie has written ; though the play The Father ( 1887 ), 

 one of four dramatic works in which he attacks the 

 female sex, also deserves to rank high in Swedish 

 literature. Two other novels, Tschandala ( 1889) 

 and On the Open Sea ( 1890), turn upon the superi- 

 ority of the aristocrat of brain over every other 

 clam of human being. Besides the books men- 

 tioned, Strindberg has produced for he is a most 

 prolific worker a host of others, and in nearly all 

 departments of literature. Unfortunately his art- 

 istic and poetic tendencies are in almost permanent 

 conflict with his tendencies as thinker, reformer, 

 and scientific observer ; and this inherent dualism 

 of his nature prevents his otherwise clever books 

 from attaining the harmony, repose, and unity so 

 essential to good literature. See Ola Hansson, Das 

 junye Xkandinamen (Dresden, 1891). 



Striliuhalt i a peculiar catching up of the 

 horse's limbs, usually of one or both hind-limbs. 

 It is most noticeable when the animal is first brought 

 out of the stable, when he is excited, or made to 

 torn suddenly round ; it is a variety of chorea or 

 St Vitus's dance. Although it does not interfere 

 with usefulness, it is a serious eyesore, and quite 

 incurable, and considerably depreciates the value 

 of the horse. 



Strom'boli. one of the Lipari Islands (q.v.), 

 with a volcano almost constantly active. 



Slromblis. a genus of marine Gasteropods, 

 typical of the family Strombidse. Their shells, often 

 called conch-shells, are well known, being often 

 used as decorative objects and in the manufacture 

 of cameos (see Vol. II. p. 675). Large numbers 

 are exported from the West Indies and other 

 tropical regions, and it is recorded that 300,000 

 fountain-shells (Strombus giffas) were brought to 

 Liverpool in 1850. This species is the largest 

 Gasteropod, the shell sometimes weighing 4 or 5 

 Ib. The stromb-shell has a short conical spire and 

 * much expanded outer lip, to which the popular 



name ' wing-shell ' refers. The animals are allied 

 to the cowries and whelks ( Buccinum ), and are 



Fountain-shell ( Strombus gigas ). 



very active, moving by short jumps. They feed on 

 dead and decaying animal matter. 



St nmiiu'ss. a seaport in Pomona, Orkney, on 

 a beautiful bay, 15 miles W. by S. of Kirkwall. 

 Gow, Scott's ' Pirate,' was born here. Pop. 1693. 



Stroilgbow, the surname of Richard de Clare, 

 Earl of Pembroke, who went to Ireland to push his 

 fortune in 1170 by permission of Henry II. (q.v.). 

 He married the daughter of Dermot, king of tern- 

 ster, became governor of Ireland in 1173, and died 

 at Dublin in 1176. 



Stroll say. one of the Orkney Islands (q.v.). 



Strontium (sym. Sr, dyad, atomic weight, 

 87'5 O = 16 sp. gr. 2'542) is a ductile and 

 malleable metar, somewhat harder than lead, and 

 of a pale yellow colour. When heated in the air 

 it burns with a crimson flame* and becomes con- 

 verted into its oxide, strontia, SrO. It is un- 

 affected by the action of dry air, but it decomposes 

 water at an ordinary temperature, hydrogen being 

 explosively developed ; and it burns in chlorine 

 gas, and in the vapour of iodine, bromine, and 

 sulphur. It dissolves in dilute nitric acid, but the 

 strong acid has scarcely any effect on it. This 

 metal does not occur in the native state, but exists 

 as a carbonate in the mineral Strontianite (so called 

 from its being first found in 1790 near Strontian, 

 a village of Ardnamurchan parish, Argyllshire, 24 

 miles SW. of Fort- William ), and as a sulphate in 

 the mineral known as Celestine. It is obtained by 

 the voltaic decomposition of the chloride of stron- 

 tium. This metal bears to barium the same close 

 relation that sodium bears to potassium ; and the 

 compounds of strontium resemble those of barium 

 not only in their composition but in their properties. 

 The oxide of strontium, commonly known as 

 Strontia, is obtained in the same way as the corre- 

 sponding oxide of barium, which it resembles in 

 almost all respects, except that it is inert when 

 taken into the system, while baryta is poisonous. 

 When a small quantity of water is poured upon it 

 it slakes, giving out heat. 



The salts of strontia resemble those of baryta in 

 their general characters, and in their being precipi- 

 tated from their solutions by sulphuric acid and 

 the soluble sulphates ; but they differ from them in 

 not being thrown down by silico-fluoric acid or 

 hyposulphite of soda, and in their communicating 

 to the flame of the spirit-lamp and to burning sub- 

 stances generally a brilliant purple-red colour. 

 The salts of strontia occur only in the mineral 

 kingdom, and are never found as normal ingredi- 

 ents of organic bodies. Carbonate of Strontia, 

 SrCO 8 , occurs native both in a massive and 

 crystalline form, and may be obtained artificially 

 as a white powder by precipitating a soluble salt 

 of strontia with carbonate of soda. Sulphate of 

 Strontia occurs native in Celestine, a mineral which 



