321 



.SCALFAE. 



SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE. 



not altogether in the same way as when it was not a note of prepara- 

 tion. If any one will compare the effect of music heard the second 

 time with that produced by the first time, he will, we think, be 

 inclined to accede to our opinion, that sounds heard without any 

 knowledge of what is to come afterwards, differ more from those which 

 are heard with such knowledge than the effects of two scales con- 

 structed on the two most remote of all the approved systems of tem- 

 perament. In Huyghens's system, his subdivision is "387 of a mean 

 semitone, the chromatic semitone is 774, the diatonic semitone 1'161, 

 and the tone l'35. 



The harmonics of any string C may be readily fotmd from the 

 table, reduced into {he octave between C and C 1 ; they may then be 

 compared with the untempered diatonic scale. For example, what is 

 the 53rd harmonic of C ? C itself counting as the first. It is by the 

 table 68'73 mean semitones above C, lower this five octaves, by sub- 

 tracting 60, and we have 8'73, lying therefore between A ? and A, but 

 nearer to the latter. 



[CHROMATIC SCALE ; DIATONIC ; ENHARMONIC. For Scales of Voices, 

 ALTO, BASE, Ac. For Scales of Musical Instruments, BASSOON, 

 CLARINET, HARP, VIOLIX, ftc.] 



SCALENE, a name given by Euclid, in his definitions (but seldom 

 or nev%r afterwards used by him), to a triangle no two sides of which 

 are equal to one another. 



SCAMMOXY, properly so called, is, in the present day, the produce 

 of Ctxruhulut trammonia, a plant growing in Greece and the countries 

 along the Levant. The scammony of the ancients was in all proba- 

 bility yielded by C. ia;/ittifolint (Sibthorp), C. Sitjtharpii ( Rcjmeretach), 

 from which it is conjectured that the scammony called of Samoa or 

 Trebizond is obtained. The best comes from Aleppo ; the next from 

 Smyrna. The French scammony, called Montpellier S., is the pro- 

 duce of Cyiinmlttm Mmupeliacum, an asclepiadaceous plant, endowed 

 with most of the acrid and poisonous properties of that tribe, and 

 therefore a dangerous substance. But even of the products of con- 

 volvulaceous plants the qualities are so various, either from' natural 

 inferiority, or, far more frequently, from carelessness in collecting it, 

 or intentional adulteration, that no drug is more unequal in its consti- 

 tution or more uncertain in its operation. Strictly speaking, it is a 

 gum-resin ; but the proportion of gum ia at all times small, while the 

 resin in different specimens varies from 81 per cent, in the best to 16 

 in the wont. Besides mechanical impurities, such as sand, fragments 

 of the stem or roots, owing to the manner of collecting, chalk, and 

 flour of wheat or barley, or dextrine, are purposely mixed with it to 

 bring it down to the market price. The latter sophistications are not 

 objectionable, further than they necessitate a larger and more bulky 

 dose. But a most pure preparation can now be obtained by extracting 

 the resin from the root itself, according to the patent plan of Prof. 

 Williamson, suggested by Mr. Clark of Sockia, Asia Minor. (See 

 ' Phanu. Journ.,' vol. xvii., p. 37 ; and vol. xviii., pp. 449 and 546.) 

 For an account of the mode of collecting scammony in the north-west 

 of Asia Minor, see the same Journal, vol. i., p. 522, new series, April, 

 1860. Perfectly pure scammony is, in a very small dose, a very 

 efficacious purgative, clearing away mucous accumulations, more espe- 

 cially from the bowels of children, which are the favourite resort of 

 worms. To expel these, scammony is often associated with calomel ; 

 but this is generally needless, as extract of rhubarb, from its bitter 

 and tonic properties, is in every way more to be commended. By 

 giving bitartrate or tartrate of potass, with carbonate of soda, its 

 properties are heightened, ami it may be rendered a useful hyclrogogue 

 cathartic. It should not be too frequently repeated, as it is apt to 

 abrade the mucous covering of the intestines ; nor should it be given 

 in inflammation of these. 



SCANDAL (KandaliM* mai/natum, slander of great men). By the 

 statute 2 R. II., c. 5, confirmed 12 R. II., c. 11, as to " devisers of false 

 news and tellers of horrible and false lies of prelates, Ac.," it was 

 enacted that none devise or speak false news, lies, or other such false 

 things of the prelates, nobles, and great men of the realm. By the 

 same statute the tellers of such lies were liable, as by the statute of 

 Westminster the first, to be imprisoned till they discovered the authors 

 of them. No statutory punishment was provided against the authors, 

 perhaps because they were liable at common law to fine and imprison- 

 ment. Upon this statute is founded the action of scandalum magnatum, 

 which in now fallen into disuse, and superseded by the common action 

 of libel and by the criminal information. It lies at the suit of any 

 nobleman, though of a dignity created since the date of the statute, of 

 the judges, and of other great officers of the realm. It has been held 

 that the action may be brought not only for such words as are action- 

 able in ordinary cases, but even for those which are not certain enough 

 to maintain an action against a common person, as where one said, " My 

 lord has no more conscience than a dog.'* 



The object of the statute originally, though afterwards it appears to 

 have been applied in private cases, was wholly of a political character. 

 The mischief recited is that " debates and discords might arise betwixt 

 the said lords, or between the lords and the commons, which Ood 

 forbid, whereof great peril and mischief might come to all the realm, 

 and quick subversion and destruction of the aforesaid realm." The 

 statute of Westminster, 3 Edw., <:. 33, referred to, is also directed to 

 cure the same mischiefs, the discord and scandal that might ariire 

 between the king and his people, or the great men of the realm. 



ARTS AJTD SCI. DIV. YOU VII. 



The term scandalous is applied to matter in a bill or answer in 

 chancery which reBecta on the character of a defendant or plaintiff, 

 and is at the same time irrelevant. Such matter will be struck out on 

 exceptions being taken to it and allowed. 



(2 Inst., 225 ; Com., Dig., tit. ' Action on the case for Defamation ; ' 

 B., Libel, C. 5.) 



SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE. The ancient Scandinavian 

 language, once common to the whole north-western portion of Europe 

 beyond the Baltic, is now confined to Iceland, where it haa xmdergone 

 little change since the 9th century. [ICELAND, in GEOO. DIV.] This 

 dialect of the Gothic is the parent stock of both Swedish and Danish, 

 the former of which tongues has retained more of the original character 

 than the other, which is also the language of Norway ; and, if not for 

 the literature they contain, in a philological point of view they deserve 

 far more attention than they have hitherto obtained from Englishmen, 

 since they throw considerable light on the history of our own language. 

 There is also a striking similarity of construction between them and 

 English, which renders them of comparatively easy acquisition to our- 

 selves. Nearly the same grammatical simplicity prevails, nor are their 

 verbs and nouns subject to those numerous changes of terminations 

 which render such languages as the German and the Russian so per- 

 plexing to a foreigner. 



Though literature, in the usual meaning of the term, was of ex- 

 ceedingly tardy development in both Denmark and Sweden, the people 

 possessed an abundant stock of those traditional poetical records which 

 scarcely lay any claim to individual authorship, being rather the 

 embodying of the sentiments and feelings of an entire race than those 

 of individuals. Of these, by far the most important are the Eddas. 

 Though committed to writing by Bishop Siimund only in the llth 

 century, it is supposed that an earlier collection was then in existence. 

 A part of Bishop Samund's gathering has been lost, and what remains 

 we owe to Snorri Sturluson, the grandson and pupil of SSmund. The 

 elder Edda is in verse, not rhymed, but rendered metrical by the use 

 of alliteration or assonance, in which the alliteration is employed twice 

 in the first line of a couplet, and the second begins with the same 

 letter. Many variations, including end rhymes, were subsequently 

 introduced. The younger Edda is in prose, with a mixture of verse, 

 partly quoted from earlier poems, in nearly every case from the eliler 

 Edda. 



Though a distinction has been drawn between the elder and younger 

 Eddas, there is little doubt but that some parts of the latter are at 

 least equal in antiquity to some of those in the elder : and as little 

 that in the elder Edda there have been many interpolations, whiuh 

 have been pointed out by Simrock (' Die Edda, die iiltere und jiingere,' 

 1855), who, however, says, "Who would venture to lay hands on so 

 reverend a piece of antiquity, and where would it end if each were to 

 follow his inclination or caprice, and began to model the tradition 

 according to his own notions." The elder Edda consists of thirty-seven 

 poems, of various degrees of poetical merit, all relating to the mytho- 

 logy, which will be treated of in the next article. After being forgotten 

 for nearly four centuries, a copy was found by Bishop Sveusen, and 

 published in 3 vols. 4to, containing the original text, a Latin trans- 

 lation, and a dictionary of the northern mythology, in 1787. A later 

 and more correct edition has been since published by Rask in 1818. 



The later Edda is divided into two books, Gylfaginning, or Gylfa's 

 fascination, and relates a like story to that of Vafthrudnisrnal (or song 

 of Vafthmdni) in the elder Edda; but occasion'is taken to deliver the 

 principal doctrines of the northern faith in answer to the disguised 

 Odin's inquiries. Bragaroedhur, or Bragi's Discourse, borrowed also 

 from the Oegirsdrecka, or Oegir's Drinking Feast : here Bragi, the 

 scald of the gods, discourses of the origin of poetry. These were first 

 translated and published by Reseuius in 1640. In some manuscripts, 

 however, and in Rask's printed edition, these are accompanied by some 

 of the Scaldaic songs. [SCALD.] 



Of other Scandinavian poems there are many distinguished by the 

 title of Kampe Viser, or Heroic Ballads, which strains of romantic 

 minstrelsy serve to give an idea of the compositions of the ancient 

 bards or scalds. Deeds of arms and bravery constitute their main 

 subjects ; for in the infancy of states personal courage and physical 

 strength are regarded as the chief titles to pre-eminence, more especially 

 in such a region as Scandinavia, where the sword was the only patrimony 

 of the younger branches of a family, and was a possession quite as 

 honourable and frequently more lucrative than that of the soil. 

 Possessing a very great extent of sea-coast, the inhabitants regarded 

 that element also as their natural territory. Their piratical expeditions, 

 undertaken partly through necessity and partly from the love of 

 adventure, obtained for them a fearful fame ; and the leaders of these 

 hardy pirates assumed the imposing title of Sea-kings. These ' Viser ' 

 contain moreover no small quantity of legendary fable and supernatural 

 lore, derived from the ancient Sagas and the mythology of the Edda 

 [SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGY], whose wild traditions were so congenial 

 to the spirit of the people that they continued to cherish the remem- 

 brance of them long after the establishment of Christianity (which was 

 not earlier than the commencement of the llth century); and in 

 modern times they have been largely made use of by Oehlenschlager 

 and other living or recent poets, who have found in them a source of 

 powerful interest for their countrymen. For a while indeed it was 

 very doubtful whether the Gospel would prevail against the popular 



