833 



STIVER. 



STOCKS. 



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VANISM] ; of the others, the effects are too familiar to require notice, 

 except to recommend the practice of encouraging the hope of a favour- 

 able issue to his complaint in the mind of a patient, in all cases not 

 desperate, as cherishing this feeling greatly increases the chance of 

 recovery. The former class is divided into permanent stimulants 

 and diffusible stimulants, the effect of the permanent being slower 

 but more lasting, that of the others quick but transient. The first are 

 used where a considerable anil enduring power is wished to be 

 imparted to the system, as in the convalescence from acute diseases, 

 the other where some great and impending danger is to be obviated, as 

 in cases of fainting fits, or when sedative poisons are to be antagonised. 

 In these latter ins Prices, ammonia, alcohol in some form, or sulphuric 

 ether, are commo:ily had recourse to. Permanent stimulants are 

 generally volatile or essential oils, pure, or in the combinations in 

 which they exist in roots, barks, or flowers, and are often highly 

 aromatic ; malt liquors may also be classed with permanent stimulants. 

 The precise stage in the progress of fevers and other acute diseases, 

 when antiphlogistic or reducing measures should be abandoned, and 

 stimulants substituted, is the nicest point that a medical attendant is 

 ever called upon to decide ; and nothing more clearly distinguishes the 

 judicious practitioner than his correct determination of this point. 

 It may be safely asserted that more cases are lost by a premature use 

 of them than by delay, as the numerous relapses in fever testify. 

 All persons recovering from severe diseases are almost in the condi- 

 tion of newly born children, in whom the irritability and excitability 

 are very great. These should not be violently acted upon, but on the 

 contrary they should be treated with the utmost gentleness and care. 

 Sleep is a more useful restorative than any other. Stimulants are more 

 necessary during the night than during the day, and as more persons 

 die during that period, the use of stimulants becomes more urgent at 

 that time. But the best and most harmless is a very strong infusion 

 of tea, especially green, given in small quantities, every hour or two, 

 as the danger of the case may point out. 



A useful stimulant is furnished by coca, the leaf of Erythroxylon 

 coca (Lamarck), a shrub native of South America. Its power of enabling 

 the Indians to sustain prolonged fatigue, either on journeys or while 

 working in mines, has been long known. It has only lately been 

 tried in Europe. Ita utility seems manifest in cases of nervous 

 exhaustion from over-study or long fasting. A few grains chewed, or 

 an infusion of varying strength according to the necessity of the case, 

 wards off fatigue and assists respiration. But too much caution can- 

 not be observed, lest a habit should be acquired, not less pernicious 

 than the abuse of opium or alcohol. (See Poppig's Travels in Pent, 

 an extract from which is in C'-nnpanioti to Botanical Magazine vol. i., 

 p. 101, and with fy. vol. ii., p. 25 ; Weddell's Voyaf/e dam le nnrd tie 

 In liolirie ; Johnston, Chemiitry nf Common Life, vol. ii., p. 137, and 

 The Trfhmil'yiit, vol. i., p. 255.) 



STIVKK. [M..NKY.] 



STOCKADK, in Fortification, is the name given to a wall constructed 

 by planting upright in the ground squared trunks of trees, or rough 

 pilot of timber, BO as to enclose an area which is to be defended. The 

 trunks or piles are planted close together ; and at intervals of three 

 feet from one another loopholes are cut through them, or notches a 

 few inches long are cut down, vertically, from the top, through 

 which the defenders may direct a fire of musketry on the assailants. 

 An inclosiire of timber so planted is sometimes called a Palttnta, 

 from a name which is said to have been given by the Turks, when 

 they first entered Europe, to their field-redouts or small entrenched 



Stockades are still frequently constructed as temporary fortifications 

 in countries which abound with timber, as in North America and the 

 East Indies ; and among uncivilised nations, these, and rude parapets 

 of earth, are the only kinds of fortification which have been executed. 

 They were also, in general, the means employed by ancient armies 

 while besieging towns, to protect themselves or to prevent the escape 

 of the garrison. The walls with which the Peloponnesians surrounded 

 Platica during the siege and the blockade of that city were stockades, 

 consisting of palisades planted close together in a double line with a 

 certain interval between the lines. (Thucydides, ii. 75.) 



The description of the pahs, or hippahs, of New Zealand, given in 

 the accounts of Captain Cook's voyages, would nearly serve for the 

 stockades within which the natives of that country have on several recent 

 occasions resisted the assault of a British force. It is stated that the 

 works consisted of trunks of trees planted close together, with a small 

 inclination towards the interior space ; and that at intervals from one 

 another, particularly at the angles of the works, there were scaffolds 

 whose heights from the ground were three feet less than that of the 

 top of the wall, so that the defenders were able to see the ground at 

 the foot of the wall while they were concealed from the view of the 

 enemy. In the interior there was usually a hollow place, in which the 

 women and children, with the provisions, were deposited. The pahs 

 we generally on the summit* of heights, and they are sometimes 

 strengthened by outworks of .1 similar nature. Those of most recent 

 construction are usually so placed as to allow of a ready retreat into 

 "th- bush." 



On the frontiers of the United States of North America, during a 

 war, stockades consisting of roughly-hewn trunks of trees planted close 

 together in upright position* and pierced with loop-holes for musketry, 



ARTS AND SCI. liiv. Vur.. VII. 



are very frequently constructed for the purpose of inclosing an area 

 which is to be defended ; and at each of the angles of the inclosure a 

 sort of blockhouse, sen-ing as a bastion to flank the stockade, is con- 

 structed with very thick logs of timber placed horizontally : these 

 block-houses are sometimes formed with an upper story, the angles o 

 which project over the sides of the lower one, so that by loop-holes in 

 the projecting part of the floor a fire of musketry may be made upon 

 the enemy when at the foot of the wall. 



STOCKINGS. [HOSIERY MANUFACTURE.] 



STOCKS, a term applied to the various " Funds " which constitute 

 the national debt. Each proprietor of stock may transfer his interest 

 to others by sale. When the transfer is effected by a broker he must 

 be authorised by a power of attorney from his principal, the stamp- 

 duty on which is 21s. Gd. ; and the document may be so drawn as to 

 empower him both to buy and sell stock and to receive the dividends 

 for the person by whom he is commissioned. Few persons buy or sell 

 stock except through the medium of a broker, but the general practice 

 is to receive their dividends themselves. The purchaser acquires the 

 dividend due upon the stock for the current half-year, and thus at one 

 point there will be a sum of 29. 4d. due on three per cent, stock, and 

 a fortnight afterwards only Is. 8rf. On the bargain being completed, 

 the parties repair to the Bank to transfer the stock. " For this pur- 

 pose the seller makes out a note in writing, which contains the name 

 and designation of the seller and purchaser and the sum and descrip- 

 tion of the stock to be transferred. He delivers this to the proper 

 clerk, and then fills up a receipt, a printed form of which, with blanks, 

 is obtained at the office. The clerk, in the mean time, examines the 

 seller's accounts ; and if he find him possessed of the stock proposed 

 to be sold, he makes out the transfer. This is signed in the books by 

 the seller, who delivers the receipt to the clerk ; and upon the pur- 

 chaser's signing his acceptance in the book, the clerk signs the receipt 

 as witness. It is then delivered to the purchaser upon payment of the 

 money, and thus the business is completed." (Dr. Hamilton, ' History 

 of the National Debt.') 



Bargains in stock are transacted in the Stock Exchange, in Capel- 

 court. All the more respectable brokers are members of the Stock 

 Exchange, into which association they are elected annually by ballot ; 

 but many of the jobbers, who are not members and carry on their 

 transactions outside the exchange, are said to be persons of wealth. 

 The governing body consists of a committee of twenty-four, also elected 

 by ballot. The established rate of brokerage is one-eighth per cent, 

 (or 2s. M. in the 100!.) upon the amount of stock transferred. 



The dividends on all descriptions of stock are due half-yearly, either 

 on the 5th of January and 5th of July, or on the 5th of April and 

 10th of October, and are paid about a week afterwards ; and for about 

 six weeks previously, the books at the Transfer Office being closed, 

 transfers cannot be regularly made. The transfers on each stock are 

 effected at other times only on certain days in the week, which may be 

 ascertained by a reference to any almanac. 



The bargains for time form a very important portion of the business 

 of the Stock Exchange. They are bargains to deliver stock on a cer- 

 tain day at a certain price, the seller of course believing that the price 

 will fall, and the buyer that it will rise. When the period for com- 

 pleting the bargain has arrived, a settlement is usually effected without 

 any payment of stock, the losing party simply paying the difference, 

 " These bargains are usually made for certain days fixed by a com- 

 mittee of the Stock Exchange, called settliny days, of which there are 

 about eight in the year, namely, one in each of the months of January, 

 February, April, May, July, August, October, and November; and 

 they are always on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, being 

 the days on which the commissioners for the reduction of the national 

 debt make purchases. The settling days in January and July are 

 always the first days of the opening of the bank books for public 

 transfer ; and these days are notified at the bank, when the books are 

 shut to prepare for the dividend. The price at which stock is sold to 

 be transferred on the next settling day is called the price OH account. 

 Sometimes, instead of closing the account on the settling day, the 

 stock is carried on to a future day on such terms as the parties agree 

 on. This is called a continuation." (Dr. Hamilton.) A defaulter, in 

 the language of the Stock Exchange, is termed a " lame duck," and his 

 name is posted for a certain time in the great room. The sellers of 

 time bargains are also technically called " bears," and the buyers 

 " bulls ; " the interest of the former being to beat down prices, and of 

 the latter to raise them. 



Stock of a high denomination may usually be bought cheaper than 

 that of which the nominal interest is lower ; and it is therefore the 

 most advantageous for temporary investment. There is always a pro- 

 bability that the stock bearing the highest rate of interest will be 

 reduced by the government when a favourable occasion presents itself ; 

 but the price of any one stock may be taken pretty nearly as an indi- 

 cation of the prices of the rest. The fluctuation in the price of stocks 

 generally may be traced to an almost infinite variety of causes to the 

 abundance or scarcity of money, and the opportunities of employing it 

 to advantage in mercantile speculations; to the rumours of a new 

 loan, or of the imposition of a fresh tax, or even the repeal of a tax ; 

 to rumours of war ; and to innumerable other circumstances relating 

 to the trade, finance, and other domestic affairs of the country. In 

 1797 the Three per Cents, were reduced to the lowest point which 



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