4)1 



SELINUHT1NE MARBLES. 



SKNATU.S. 



44-J 



the right and left in a horizontal plane in the case of the declination 

 magnet and horizontal force magnet, and up and down in a vertical 

 plane in registering the movements of the vertical force magnet. Hence, 

 as the cylinder is constantly being moved round by clockwork, there is 

 traced upon the paper a curve of which the abscissa, measured in the 

 direction of a line round the cylinder, is proportional to the time, while 

 the ordinate, measured in the direction of the axis of the cylinder, is 

 proportional to the movement of the magnet. A base-Hue, from which 

 to measure the ordinatea, is traced upon the paper by the action of 

 a spot of light proceeding from another gas-lamp placed near the 

 cylinder and passing through a slit fixed to the carrier of the cylinder. 



In the photographic registration of the barometer, the instrument is 

 arranged in the siphon form, and a float, resting on the surface of the 

 mercury in the shorter limb, hangs in a notch on the short arm of a 

 delicately poised lever. At the end of the long arm of this lever is an 

 opaque screen containing a small aperture, through which a pencil of 

 light passes. Now it is evident that, as this screen moves up and down 

 with the oscillations of the mercury, a line will be traced on the pho- 

 tographic paper by the pencil of light transmitted by the screen. There 

 is also an arrangement for tracing a base-line on the photographic 

 paper. The cylinder carrying the sensitive paper is mounted on a 

 turn-table, which is carried round by the hour-hand of a clock placed 

 concentrically beneath it. The paper is covered by a second cylinder 

 to prevent it from becoming dry, during the twenty-four hours that the 

 apparatus remains in action. The cylinders are also covered with a 

 blackened zinc case to prevent all light from falling on the paper, 

 except that from the pencils which describe the register and the 

 base line. 



In the photographic registration of the thermometer and psychro- 

 meter, the bulbs of the instruments are freely exposed beneath a table 

 on which is a revolving cylinder covered with sensitive paper, while 

 the stems pass up through the table, and are placed between the cylin- 

 der and a source of light, which, by means of a cylindrical lens, 

 falls on the stem of the thermometer in a narrow vertical line, and, 

 passing through that part of the bore which is above the mercury, 

 blackens the sensitive paj>er. The boundary between the affected 

 and the unaffected parts of the paper indicates the position of the 

 mercury in the stem of the instrument. Fine wires are placed across 

 the slit through which the light passes, and coarser wires are attached 

 to every tenth degree, as well as to the points 32, 54 3 , 76, and 98 

 Kahr. The shadows of these wires protect the portion of the paper on 

 which they fall from the action of the light, so that the darkened 

 surface of the paper is traversed by a series of parallel pale lines, and 

 the relative positions of the broad and narrow lines show the tempe- 

 rature indicated by the register. The whole of the apparatus is 

 protected by an outer wind- and water-tight zinc case. 



MAUBLES. [SCULPTURE.] 



Vl'lloKK. [TELEGRAPH.] 



8KMIBEXZ1DAM. Synonymous with Aioiihetti/laiaiae. [OnoAXic 

 BASES.] 



M;M IHKKVK, a character in music, sometimes nearly circular in 

 form, but more commonly elliptical. Ex. : 



This U adopted as the measure-note in music ; the other five cha- 

 racters that indicate duration, as minim, crotchet, &c., being considered 

 as proportional parts of it. 



SK.MK Ul.ll.V [PUXCTUATION.] 



SE.MINAl'HTHALIDUM. [NAPHTUALIC GROUP. XitrmaiMii- 

 -if.] 



SEMIQUAVER, a musical character, formed of a crotchet with 

 two hooks added at the extremity of the stem, and U ill duration ,' of 

 a icuiibreve. Ex. : 



SEMITIC LANGUAGES. [ARAMAEAN, or ARAMAIC LANGUAGE; 

 HKHKEW 1,\ ..AMU-AUK.] 



SEMITONE, an interval in music, whose ratio is 16 : 15, as c c ;. 



SENATUS, according to the etymological meaning of the word, is 

 " an assembly of elders," and this is the sense which the Roman 

 writers attach to the earliest senate of Home. The number of senators 

 in the Greek republics, as well as at Rome, always bore a certain 

 relation to the number of tribes of which the state was composed. 

 Hence, as long as Attica was divided into four tribes, the number of 

 senator* was 400 ; and when Cleisthenes divided the country into ten 

 tribes, he increased the number of senators to 500. As long as Rome 

 only comprehended one tribe, the Latins of the city on the Palatine, 

 their senate consisted of only 100 members. After the accession of a 

 second tribe, the number of senators was raised to 200 ; and when a 

 third tribe was united with them, the number of senators was 

 increased to 300. Each of the three Roman tribes was divided into 

 ten curia?, and each curia into ten gentes, and the same number of 

 decurit*, containing, according to Gottling, parts of several gentes, and 

 made for purposes of representation. At the head of each gens there 

 was a decurio, who, according to Niebuhr, by virtue of this office was 



a senator, or a representative of his gens in the senate. But Walter 

 (' Gesch. des Horn. Rechts,') justly observes that the age of a decurio, 

 who was at the same time a military officer, aud consequently must 

 always have been a young man and able to bear arms, does not appear 

 to be consistent with the age and duties of a senator. It is much more 

 probable that each decury elected from its own body one by whom it 

 was represented in the senate. Each curia was thus represented by 

 ten senators, who were called a " decuria senatorum" (Liv., i. 7). At 

 the head of this decuria senatorum was a curio, and the ten heads of 

 the decuries, when the senate consisted of only 100 members, or ten 

 decuries, were the " decem primi," from among whom the king chos& 

 one as princeps senatus. It appears that when the Itamnes and Tities 

 became united, and the senate consisted of twenty decuries, the ten 

 decuries of the Ramnes with their dtcem priuii still retained for a 

 time a kind of superiority over the Tities. (Dionys. Hal., ii. ; Plut. r 

 'Num.,' 3.) The senators representing the Ramnes gave their votes 

 first, and the princeps senatus was chosen from among them alone. 

 But the first two tribes must soon have been placed on a footing of 

 equality, so that some of the deeem primi, as well as the prvaceps, 

 senatus, might belong to either of the tribes. (Dionys., I. c.) After 

 the union of the third tribe, the senators representing the fkst two 

 are supposed by Niebuhr to be the " patres majorum gentium," aud 

 those representing the third to be the " patres minorum gentium." 

 Gottling (' Gesch. d. Rom. Staatsv. ) on the other hand considers tht> 

 " patres miuorum gentium" to have been the noble plebeians whom 

 Tarquinius Priscus admitted into the three old tribes, aud who, in con- 

 sequence of this, became eligible to the senate. (Cic., ' De Rep,,' ii. 

 20.) The patres minorum gentium had at first, as Niebuhr (ii., p. 

 114) supposes, no right to speak in the senate, but merely voted by 

 going over to either party; aud he therefore conceives that they vi-era 

 the " senatores pedarii." (Gellius, iii. 18 ; Dionys., vii., p. 453.) This 

 name of senatores pedarii might in subsequeut times, when all the 

 senators had equal rights, be applied to all senators indiscriminately,, 

 aa it was their general custom to vote by discessio, or a division. All 

 writers agree that Tarquinius Priscus raised the number of senators to. 

 300, but the*manner in which this was effected is stated differently. 

 Cicero (1. c.) says that the king doubled the existing number it' 

 senators (which would accordingly have been 150), while others (Ljft., 

 i. 35 ; Dionys., iii., p. 19U) state that he merely added 100 senators to 

 the existing number of 200. Niebuhr ingeniously reconciles these 

 two statements by the supposition that before the time of Tarquum'us 

 Priscus some of the gentes of the first two tribes had become 

 extinct, though it does not follow that the number of the extinct 

 gentes amounted exactly to fifty. But if, aa we have supposed, the 

 senators were not elected by each gens, but by a decuria, Niebuhr'a 

 supposition must fall to the ground, as it cannot be conceived how 

 decuries could become extinct, as they might be formed in such a 

 manner that one large gens would comprehend several decuries, while 

 smaller ones united in forming one decury, aud thus were always able 

 to make up a certain number of decuries. The statement of Cicero, 

 appears to rest upon a misconception. (Gcittlinp, p. 22S.) Serving. 

 Tullius did not introduce any change in the composition of the senate, 

 but in the reign of the last king, Tarquinius Superbus, the number of 

 senators is said to have become greatly diminished, as many of them 

 were put to death, and others were scut into exile. These vacancies 

 however were filled up immediately after the establishment of thu 

 republic by electing into the senate the principal plebeians ui the 

 equestrian order. Livy (ii. 1) ascribes this completion to L. Junius 

 Brutus; Dionysius (v., p. 287), Plutarch (' Popl.,' 11), and Festus (s. v. 

 " qui patres"), to Valerius Publicola. The number of these new ple- 

 beian senators is said to have been 164, but this is utterly incompatible 

 with the subsequent history of Rome. The new plebeian senators 

 were called Conscript!, in contradistinction to the patrician senators, 

 or patres ; hence the mode of addressing the whole senate " patres 

 conscripti," that is, " patres et conscript!." The word patres, although 

 in later times used to designate senators in general, was originally 

 another name for patricians. (Liv., ii. 1; Fest., i, v. "adlecti;" 

 Niebuhr, i., p. 327, &c.) The number of 300 senators henceforth 

 remained unaltered for several centuries. C. Gracchus was the iirst 

 who attempted an alteration. Livy (' Epit.,' lib. 60) says that he 

 wished to increase the senate by adding 600 equites, but this seems a 

 mistake, and the reading is probably corrupt. Plutarch (' C. Gracch.,' 

 5, 4c.) says that he added 300 equites to the 300 senators, aud trans- 

 ferred to this body the Judicia (publica). All the other writers who 

 mention these events (see the passages in Gottling, p. 237, note 3) do 

 not allude to an increase in the number of senators, but merely 

 state that he transferred the Judicia to the equites. A similar 

 attempt was made by the tribune Livius Drusus. (Appian, ' Civil.,' 

 i. 35.) Sulla added 300 equites to the senate, and thus increased 

 its number to 600. [SULLA, in Bioo. Div. ] Four hundred 

 senators were after this time present in a case when many were 

 absent. (Cic. 'ad Att.', i. 14.) Julius Caesar increased the number of 

 senators to 900, and elected men of the lowest rank into the senate. 

 (Dion Cas., liii. 47.) This mode of filling up vacancies or increasing 

 the number of senators with freedmen and common soldiers was con- 

 tinued after the death of Cicsar, and at one time there were more than 

 1000 senators. (Suet., 'Aug.,' 35.) Augustus again reduced the 

 number to 600. (Dion Cass., liv. 14.) Respecting the number of 



