STRUVE 



STUART 



771 



or a complete view of the Manners, Customs, 

 Arni8,_Hal>its, &c. of the Inhabitants of England 

 (1774-73-76); Chronicle of England, down to the 

 Norman Conquest (1777-78); a Biographical 

 Dictionary of Engravers (1785-86); and Complete 

 View of the Dress and Habits of the People of 

 England (\1W 99). 



Struve, FRIEDRICH GEORG WILHELM, German 

 astronomer, was born at Altona, April 15, 1793, 

 educated at the university of Dorpat ( Russia), and 

 appointed to a post in the observatory of that place 

 in 1813. He became director of the Dorpat 

 Observatory in 1817, and in 1839 was placed at 

 the head of the new observatory of Pulkova near 

 St Petersburg. He retired in 1861, and died at 

 St Petersburg on 23d November 1864. He directed 

 his attention principally to the observation of 

 double stars, and collected materials for three 

 important works (1827, 1837, 1852) dealing with 

 this branch of astronomy. He also carried out a 

 number of important geodetic operations, such as 

 the triangulation of Livonia (in 1816-19) and the 

 measurement of an arc of the meridian in the 

 Baltic Provinces (in 1822-27), which was sub- 

 sequently (1828-56) extended by him, in con- 

 junction with Hansteen (q.v.) and Selander, to the 

 North Cape, and by General Tenner southwards to 

 Ismail in Turkey. For this last gigantic under- 

 taking, see Struve's Arc du Meridien entre le 

 Daniibe et la Mer Gloriole ( St Petersburg, 1857-60). 

 His son, OTTO WILHELM STRUVE, also an astro- 

 nomer, was born at Dorpat, May 7, 1819, was 

 educated under his father's direction, became his 

 chief assistant at Pulkova, and the director of 

 the same observatory after his retirement. He 

 has made numerous astronomical discoveries, 

 among which are more than 500 new double stars 

 and (1847) a satellite of Uranus, and has written 

 numerous papers, the most noticeable of which set 

 forth his researches on the rings of Saturn and on 

 the periodic motions of double stars. 



Stry, or STRYI, a town of Austrian Galicia, on 

 a tributary of the Dniester, 45 miles by rail S. 

 of Lemberg, with sawmills and tanneries. Pop. 

 12,625, nearly one-half Jews. The town was 

 almost wholly burned down in April 1886. 



Strychnine, a poisonous drug, is named from 

 a genus of tropical trees and shrubs of the order 

 Loganiaceie. The most notable species is the 

 Strychnos Nux Vomica, so called from the name 

 Nux Vomica given to its seeds, the source of 

 strychnine. The tree and its seeds are described at 

 Nux VOMICA. From various species of Strychnos 

 are obtained the Clearing Nut (q.v.), the Curari 

 (q.v.) poison, and Ignatius' Beans (q.v.); while one 

 kind of Upas poison ( Upas tieute) is made from a 

 species of Strychnos. 



Strychnine, C^H^N.,0,, is an alkaloid occurring 

 in crystals, has an intensely bitter taste, is colour- 

 less and inodorous, scarcely soluble in water, but 

 easily soluble in boiling rectified spirit, in ether, 

 and in chloroform. Pure sulphuric acid forms with 

 it a colourless solution, which, on the addition of 

 bichromate of potash, acquires an intensely violet 

 hue, speedily passing through red to yellow. In 

 nitric acid it ought, if pure, to form a colourless 

 solution ; if the solution is reddish it is a sign that 

 brucine is also present. Strychnine combines with 

 numerous acids, and forms well-marked salts, which 

 give the same reactions as the base itself. Nux 

 vomica seeds contain alwut "2 to '5 per cent, of 

 it. Brucine is the subject of a separate article. 



Strychnine and brucine occur not only in nux 

 vomica, but in the seeds of Strychnos amara (St 

 Ignatius' beans) and in the seeds and other parts 

 o? several plants of the genus Strychnos. Nux 

 vomica and its alkaloids are very poisonous to all 



kinds of animals. It is believed, however, that 

 the bird called Buceros rhinoceros eats the nuts 

 with impunity ; and a peculiar kind of Acarus lives 

 and thrives in the extract of the nuts. In small 

 doses ( 3 ' th to -^th grain ) it is largely used in medi- 

 cine as a stimulant, as a tonic, and as a bitter. 

 The officinal preparations are made from nux vomica 

 and from strychnine. In poisoning with strychnine 

 the symptoms depend on excessive stimulation of 

 the spinal cord, and when fully developed consist 

 in rigid tetanic convulsions. These are preceded 

 by muscular twitchings, cramps, and jerking move- 

 ments. Each spasm lasts one or two minutes, and 

 is followed by a short remission, during which the 

 person lies completely exhausted, but able to con- 

 verse and swallow. The slightest touch, a noise, 

 or even a draught of air will bring on a spasm. 

 The mind generally remains quite clear. Death 

 takes place within two hours from exhaustion, or 

 from suffocation produced by the impossibility of 

 breathing during the spasms. Death may occur in 

 a few minutes, however; a quarter of a grain is 

 the smallest fatal dose of strychnine recorded, but 

 patients have survived much larger amounts. 



The treatment, after emptying the stomach, con- 

 sists in keeping the patient as quiet as possible, 

 and in administering substances which will depress 

 the spinal cord, and thereby allay the tetanic 

 spasms. Chloral hydrate and bromide of potassium 

 by the mouth or rectum have been found useful 

 in this respect. But putting the patient deeply 

 under the influence of chloroform is probably the 

 most efficacious mode of treatment. 



Strype, JOHN, a voluminous ecclesiastical 

 historian, was born in London, November 1, 1643, 

 the same year as Burnet. He was educated at 

 St Paul's School, whence he passed first to Jesus 

 College, then to Catharine Hall, Cambridge. He 

 was presented in 1669 to the perpetual curacy of 

 Theydon-Bois in Essex, which he resigned a little 

 later to become minister of Low Leyton in the 

 same county. Later he received the sinecure of 

 Tarring in Sussex and the lectureship of Hackney, 

 which he resigned in 1724. He died at Hackney, 

 December 11, 1737, aged ninety-four. His works 

 fill thirteen folio volumes (27 vols., Clar. Press 

 ed., 1821-43). The most important are Memorials 

 of Archbishop Cranmer (1694) ; Life of Sir Thomas 

 Smith, Secretary of State to Edward VI. and 

 Elizabeth (1698); Lives of Bishop Aylmer (1701), 

 Sir John Cheke ( 1705), Archbishop Grindal ( 1710), 

 Archbishop Parker (1711), and Archbishop Whit- 

 gift (1718); Annals of the Reformation (vol. i 

 1709, vol. ii. 1723, vol. lii. 1728, and vol. iv. 1731) ; 

 Ecclesiastical Memorials, relating to religion and 

 the Church of England under Henry VIII., 

 Edward VI., and Queen Mary (3 vols. 1721). This 

 last is his best work, forming, with Burnet 's more 

 readable History of the Reformation, a consecutive 

 and full account of the reformed Anglican Church. 

 Strype also published an enlarged edition of 

 Stow's Survey of London (2 vols. 1720), with 

 several sermons and pamphlets. As a writer he 

 is heavy and unskilful in arrangement, but 

 laborious and honest, and his transcriptions of the 

 ancient papers he published may be trusted. A 

 simple-minded but sincere man, he has left to 

 posterity a series of works of the very greatest 

 value despite their prolixity, irrelevant details, 

 and tiresome repetitions. 



Stuart. See STEWART. 



Stuart, GILBERT CHARLES, American painter, 

 was born at Narragansett, Rhode Island, in 1756. 

 In his boyhood he went to Edinburgh with a 

 Scotch painter named Alexander, with whom he 

 studied his art ; but his master dying, he worked 

 his passage home, and began to paint portraits 



