SARSAPARILLA. 



SATISFACTION. 



was not applied to it. Many writers (Costard for example) confound 

 it with the Metonic period of 235 lunations, which is a totally different 

 thing : others again, as Geminus, and even Riccioli, appear to consider 

 it as a period for the determination of the lunation or month ; and 

 perhaps the assertion made by some others, that the Chaldseans were 

 in possession of the Metonic cycle, may be another confusion between ^ 

 the latter and the saros. 



Leaving the authorities on the subject, we know [Moot] that 223 

 average intervals between full moon and full moon make up very 

 nearly 242 nodical months, or passages of the moon from one node to 

 the same again. Now since -the eclipses entirely depend upon the 

 manner in which the full and new moons take place relatively to the 

 node, it is obvious that if 223 lunations were exactly 242 nodical 

 months, and if the sun's and moon's orbits were truly circular, and 

 their motions uniform, all the eclipses of one set of 223 lunations 

 would be produced again precisely in the same order during the next 

 223 ; that is, if there were (say) an eclipse of the sun during the 47th 

 lunation, reckoning from a given full moon, there would necessarily be 

 another in the (47 -f 223)rd, or the 270th lunation, and so on. 



All these suppositions are near enough to the truth to make this 

 sequence of eclipses very nearly take place. For since 223 lunations 

 make 241'029 sidereal months, 238'992 anomalistic months, and 

 24T999 nodical months, it is obvious that at the end of a saros the 

 moon is in the same position with respect to the sun, nearly in the 

 game part of the heavens, nearly in the same part of her orbit, and 

 very nearly indeed at the same distance from her node as at the 

 beginning of the period. Now 223 lunations make 6585'32128 days, 

 or 6585 days, 7 hours, 42 minutes, and 38 seconds; or 18 years (of 

 365 days), 15 days, 7 hours, 40 minutes, and 38 seconds. Consequently 

 a saros of five leap years is 18 years, 10 j days, and one of four leap 

 years is 18 years, 11} days, nearly. The Chaldsean period is 6585J 

 days ; and to avoid fractions they appear to have put together three 

 such periods, making 19,756 days, and 669 lunations. From what has 

 been said above, it might be inferred that the rotation of the moon's 

 node is made in nearly a saros ; and in fact that revolution does take 

 18-6 yean. 



It is to be observed, however, that the end of each saros is not in 

 the same part of the day as the beginning, which is of consequence as to 

 the solar eclipses, though not so as to the lunar, and still more does 

 the inexactness of the period affect the former. For a saros contains 

 241'998659 mean nodical revolutions; so that if the moon be in her 

 node at the beginning of a saros, she will want '001341 of a revolution 

 of being in her node at the end of it. This is about 29', nearly the 

 moon's diameter, which makes it sometimes happen that a lunar 

 eclipse which takes place in a certain lunation of one saros does not 

 take place in the same lunation of the next, and very often causes the 

 same as to a solar eclipse. And the effect must be that at last the 

 eclipse of any lunation is destroyed, by the accumulation of these 

 errors of 29' each time. Nor do the circumstances of one saros pre- 

 cisely resemble those of another until a longer [icriod of about 746 

 such periods has elapsed. But in the same manner that eclipses are 

 removed out of one lunation l>y the inexactness of the period, they are 

 carried into another. There are about 70 eclipses in each saros, 30 

 lunar and 40 solar. 



The Metonic cycle of 235 lunations gives 255*021 nodical months, 

 which is not near enough to a whole number to produce anything like 

 a return of similar eclipses. But it is, as explained [Moos], near 

 enough to an exact number of years to restore the full moons to the 

 same day* of the year, or the preceding or following days. The 

 Metonic cycle i a chronological period ; that is, portions of time 

 measured from a given epoch, and each equal to 19 years, are used in 

 chronology. But the Saros is not a chronological period, but only a 

 portion of time with any arbitrary commencement. Hence the student 

 must not look in works on chronology for any information upon it. 



(Hiccioli, Aim. \or. ; Weidler, Tfiil. Attron. ; Bouillaud, Aitron. 

 P/ii/'J. : Ferguson's Aitrmumy.) 



SARSAPAKILLA. [SJIILAX.] 



AKKA8, Mfdieol proptrtiet of. The tree which yields this 

 substance is the Saoafrot njXcinii/t (Nees) (Laurut Sauafrat, Lin.) ; a 

 native of North America, occurring from Canada to Florida. It is 

 aid to grow in Mexico, and Martin* mentions it as a part of the 

 Kateria Medica of Brazil ; but it is probable that it was introduced 

 from Florida. Though Martius distinctly enumerates Laurta Kama- 

 frai (Linn.) among the medicinal plants of Brazil (Spix and Martius's 

 ' Trarels in Brazil,' English translation, London, 1824, vol. ii. p. 96) ; 

 yet recent writers state the Brazil sassafras to be the produce of 

 Nectandra ci/mbarum (Nees), the Ototea ameura of Martius. (Mart, in 

 Buchner's 'Report,' xxxv. 180.) This point is worthy of careful 

 determination, if Martius' statement be correct, that the bark of this 

 tree is an ingredient in the famous woorary poison. Sassafras nuts 

 are probably the produce of one or two species of Nectandra. The 

 bebeerine, an important anti-febrile medicine, is the bark of Nectandra 

 Rixliri (Schomb.). It is a constituent, probably, along with quinia, of 

 Warburg's fever drops. The root is the officinal part in the London 

 Pharmacopoeia; but the whole plant possesses the aromatic odour 

 common to the Laurrneo;, and some assert that the bark of the stem 

 and branches is stronger than that of the root ; but this seems to be 

 an error. The root, invested with the bark, comes to Europe in pieces 



sometimes 2 feet long, and from the thickness of an arm to half a foot 

 in diameter, irregularly bent, knotty, and with a light, soft, porous 

 wood. The bark also occurs detached from the wood in pieces two or 

 three inches long, from one and a half to two inches broad, sometimes 

 rolled outwards, but more generally curved inwards ; of a dirty grey 

 or brownish colour externally, and a fungoid surface of a reddish 

 colour internally. The taste is sharp, acrid, aromatic, and, as well 

 as the odour, resembles fennel. 



The chief constituents are : volatile oil, resin, and extractive. The 

 oil is the most active. It may be obtained by distillation. Ten pounds 

 of the root yield two and a half drachms. The specific gravity is 

 1'094. It consists of two oils, separable by water, in which the one 

 floats and the other sinks. By time or a low temperature, it deposits 

 a stearopten, or crystals of sassafras camphor. 



Sassafras acts as a stimulant to the circulation, especially of the 

 capillaries, causing an increased secretion from the skin, if the person 

 be kept warm, or from the kidneys, if cool. Should these organs fail 

 to be influenced by it, heat and general excitement, with headache, are- 

 the results. It is of unquestionable utility in gout and rheumatism, 

 but its activity is generally destroyed by the improper mode of admi- 

 nistering it. Decoction dissipates the volatile oil, and is a most objec- 

 tionable preparation. Infusion or a tincture may be used, or the 

 volatile oil rubbed up with sugar. Other species of Sassafras are used 

 in India and Java. Sassafras tea is sold in the streets of London under 

 the name of saloop. 



SATELLITE (satella, an attendant soldier or guard), a name given" 

 to the smaller planets which accompany and revolve round tho larger 

 ones. With this exception, that the rotation of a satellite round it& 

 own axis is made in the same time as its orbital revolution round its 

 primary, in every case in which it has yet been fully made out that 

 there is a motion of rotation, there seems to be no circumstance which 

 can be pointed out in which the satellites have any distinctive pecu- 

 liarities. The earth has one satellite [Moos], 'JUPITER has four,. 

 SATURN eight, URANUS six (according to William Herschel), though 

 the existence of four only has yet been established, and NEPTUNE: 

 one. See also GRAVITATION, SOLAB SYSTEM, ASTRONOMY. 



SATIN. [SiLK.] 



SATIRE is properly a species of Roman poetry, and must net: be= 

 confounded with the Satyric drama of the Greeks. The Latin word 

 Saturn or Satira appears to have originally signified a collection of 

 various things, and accordingly this name is applied to food composed 

 of various ingredients, and also to a law consisting of several distinct- 

 particulars of a different nature. (Festus, s. v., Diomed. hi., p. 483, ed. 

 Putsch.) The Roman satire is first mentioned as a kind of dramatic- 

 performance (Liv. vii., 2), and appears to have been, like the early 

 Atellanae Fabulae, only a rude improvisatory farce, without dramatic 

 connection, but full of raillery and wit. This species of composition 

 arose from the practice, which has prevailed in Italy from the earliest 

 times to the present day, of the country people making rude extempore 

 verses in ridicule of one another at various festivals, and especially at 

 the time of the vintage. Such were the Fesceunini verses, which 

 Macrobius tells us (' Saturn.,' ii., 4) were sometimes written as satires- 

 upon persons. The old dramatic Satune continued to be performed 

 on the Roman stage till a late period, under the name of Exodia, which 

 were laughable interludes in verse, and were performed between the' 

 different Atellane plays. 



The name of satire was afterwards limited to a species of poetry 

 peculiar to the Romans, in which Enuius is said to have been the first 

 writer. The satires of Ennius appear to have been so called because 

 they were written on a variety of subjects, and in many different 

 metres ; but as hardly any fragments have come down to us, we know 

 very little of the subjects of which they u ,-;-e composed. Lucilius 

 however was the first who constructed satii jn those principles of art 

 which were considered in the time of Horace as essential requisites in 

 a satiric poem. Lucilius principally used the hexameter metre, which 

 was afterwards almost exclusively employed by the satiric poets. Hisi 

 poems were not only satires upon the vices and follies of mankind in 

 general, but also contained attacks upon private individuals. They 

 formed the model on which Horace wrote his satires. His easy temper- 

 and happy disposition, as well as the principles of the Epicurean! 

 philosophy, led him to attack the foibles and follies of mankind in a 

 style of playful raillery, which forms a striking contrast to the severe- 

 invectives of Juvenal The increased corruption of morals at Rome- 

 under the early emperors, and the cruel punishments which had been 

 inflicted by Domitian upon the wise and the good, naturally led 

 Juvenal to attack the vices of his age with severity and vigour. The 

 works of the other Roman satirists are lost, with the exception of 

 Persius and a few verses on the banishment of the philosophers by- 

 Domitian, which are ascribed to Sulpicia, who is supposed by some 

 writers to be a contemporary of Tibullus, and by others of Ausonius. 



SATISFACTION (in Law), is said to exist where a party, having 

 a right of action, accepts from the party against whom he has it, a 

 certain and valuable thing, or the performance of a certain and bene- 

 ficial act, in lieu of his right of action. If the action is afterwards 

 brought, the satisfaction may be pleaded in bar of it. Satisfaction may 

 exist as to actions in which damages are recoverable, and as to some- 

 others ; but it cannot operate so as to dispense with the performance of 

 a covenant under a deed, as a deed can only be made void by an 



