19 



SWEARING. 



SWORD MANUFACTURE. 



850 



sureties in 20/. a-piece, never to offend again in like manner. And see 

 ' Calend. Rot. Pat.,' 163 b, 165 b, 166 a, 168 a. 



The 2 Henry IV., c. 21, which directs that no lord shall give any 

 livery or sign to any knight, esquire, or yeoman, contains a proviso, 

 that the prince may give his honourable livery of the Stcan to his lords, 

 and to gentlemen his menials. (8 ' Rot. Parl.,' 478 a.) 



(See Blomfield's XvrfM ; Kemp's Lastly MSS.; Archaologia, vol. 

 x\i. : Colonel Hawker.) 



s WEARING, a profane use of the name of the Deity. By the 

 109th canon, churchwardens are to present those who offend their 

 brethren by swearing, and notorious offenders are not to be admitted 

 to communion until they are reformed. Profane cursing and swearing 

 were first made an offence punishable by law by 20 J. I., c. 21 (con- 

 tinue.! by 3 Ch. I., c. 4; 1*5 Ch. I., c. 4; and 6 & 7 W. III., c. 11). 

 By the 19 G. II. c. 21, it is recited that these vices were become so 

 frequent, that " unless speedily and effectually punished, they may 

 justly provoke the divine vengeance to increase the many calamities 

 these nations now labour under," and the statute accordingly enacts 

 that if any person shall profanely curse or swear, and be convicted 

 thereof on confession, or on the oath of one witness, before any magis- 

 trate, be shall forfeit, if a day-labourer, common soldier, sailor, or sea- 

 man, 1. ; if any other person under the degree of gentleman, 2s. ; if of 

 or above the degree of a gentleman, 5. ; for every second conviction 

 double, and for tvery third and subsequent conviction treble. The 

 penalties are to go to the poor of the parish. If the offence is com- 

 i in the hearing of the magistrate, he may convict without 

 i proof. Parties who do not pay the penalties and costs may be 

 md kept to hard labour ten days for the penalties, and six 

 'lays for the cost*. Magistrates and constables are liable to 

 (wiialtie* if they wilfully omit to do their duty under the act. No 

 . can be prosecuted except within eight days after he has com- 

 mitted the offence. 



sWEATINU-SIi'KNi miMaliyna, 



8*dor A ngliciu, Uyilronomi*, are the various names which have been 

 given to severe epidemic disease that prevailed in this country and in 

 some parts of the Continent at different periods during the latter part 

 of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th centuries. The invasion of 

 thU disease was generally quite sudden, some persons experiencing a 

 sensation as of a hot vapour extending over the body, while others felt 

 as if consumed by an internal fire ; there was violent fever, pain in the 

 head and limbs, prostration of strength, hurried breathing, a small 

 frequent pul-e, nausea, great thirst, delirium, and excessive restlesa- 

 ness. Shortly after the appearance of these symptoms a profuse 

 clammy fetid perspiration broke out over the whole body; the thirst 

 became more intolerable, and the patients either died in a state of 

 delirium or coma, or recovered as suddenly as they had been first 

 attacked. Such was the rapidity with which this disease ran its course, 

 that its victims were sometimes carried off hi three or four hours, or 

 even before the sweating stage had set in ; and all danger was con- 

 sidered to be at an end if the patient survived the first twenty-four 

 hours. The profuse sweating which characterised the disease was 

 looked upon as an effort of nature to get rid of some morbific matter 

 from the system, and the early appearance of this stage was, therefore, 

 regarded as a favourable circumstance. Accordingly, when persons 

 were attacked, it was usual to put them immediately to bed, without 

 even removing their clothes, to enjoin absolute quietude, and to en- 

 courage the outbreak of the perspiration by heating the room, covering 

 them well up from the air, and giving them mild cordials. If the 

 sweating stage were tardy in appearing under the influence of these 

 mnans. friction was had recourse to ; and if the patient were at the 

 same time very feeble, drinks of a more stimulating quality were 

 administered : fumigations with storax, laurel, or juniper berries were 

 also employed. These remedies were persisted in till the sweating was 

 fully established. After twelve or fifteen hours the coverings of the 

 patient were diminished, the apartment was made cooler, and the air 

 was impregnated with the vapour of vinegar ; sleeping was not allowed 

 at this stage of the complaint unless the pulse was strong, it having 

 been observed that those who indulged in this propensity seldom woke 

 again. At the end of twenty-four hours the linen was all changed, 

 nourishing food was gradually administered ; and on the second or 

 third day, if the weather was propitious, the patients were allowed to 

 go out. Thia mode of treatment, which is so different from that pur- 

 cued in the present day in analogous diseases, does not appear to have 

 been adopted simply with the view of hastening the accession of the 

 sweating stage, but from the experience of the injurious influence of 

 cold in this disease, several fatal cases having been attributed to the 

 mere exposure of the patient's arms to the air while in bed. 



The sweating-sickness is said to have made its first appearance in 

 this country in the army of the earl of Richmond, on his landing at 

 Milford Haven in the year 1485. On the Ulst of September of the 

 same year it reached London, where it raged till the latter end of 

 r. It reappeared in this country during the summers of IflMi;, 

 1.M7, I'.-J". and 1561. From 1625 to 1530 it visited Holland, Germany, 

 Denmark, Sweden, Poland, and parts of Russia ; and Forestus informs 

 u* (lil>. vi., obs. 8) that it broke out in Amsterdam on the 27th of 

 September, 1529, where it raged but four days, sparing only old people 

 and children, and attacking above one hundred persons a day. With 

 respect to the mortality of this disease accounts are somewhat vague. 



Bacon informs us that in the first epidemic the patients recovered if 

 they were attended to in time, but that many died before a remedy 

 was discovered. The epidemic of 1517 appears to have been particu- 

 larly fatal, frequently destroying its victims in two or three hours, and 

 in some places carrying off one-third, and even one-half of the inhabi- 

 tants : that of 1528 was also very fatal, but was remarkable for its short 

 duration in each place. The last outbreak of this disease in England 

 happened at Shrewsbury in the year 1551, and was extremely fatal, 

 sparing neither age nor sex : it raged from April to September, be- 

 coming milder in character towards its termination. 



The origin and causes of this singular malady are still involved in 

 considerable mystery. Bacon speaks of it as a terrible and unknown 

 disease, that had its origin neither in the blood nor in the humours ; a 

 surprise of nature, rather than obstinate to remedies. Drs. Caius 

 and Mead believed it to be a modification of the plague ; and Dr. Mead 

 says that it was imported into this country from France, whither it 

 had been conveyed in 1480, from the island of Rhodes, at that time 

 besieged by the Turks. Caius affirms that the t\vo epidemics of 1517 and 

 1528 were brought to England from Florence and Naples, at which 

 places the plague was then raging, and that it was the same disease, 

 only modified by climate. Dr. Cullen thought it a variety of typhus ; 

 and Dr. Willau suggested that it might have been produced by some 

 disease in the wheat at those periods at which it prevailed, just as the 

 Asiatic or malignant cholera has been attributed to the eating of bad 

 rice. Opinions are not less at variance respecting the antiquity of this 

 disease, and its identity with that which still prevails on some parts of 

 the Continent, to which the term of " La Suette " has been applied. 

 M. Rayer, without giving a decided opinion on the subject, admits that 

 although there are notable differences between the two diseases in 

 point of duration and gravity, yet there is an incontestible analogy 

 between them. It is perhaps impossible at this distance of time to 

 decide the question : we shall therefore conclude this article by 

 referring those who may feel an interest in the subject to M. Rayer's 

 ' Histoire de I'Epidemie de la Suette-Miliare qui a re'gne en 1821, dans 

 lea Departemens de 1'Oise et de Seine-et-Oise," Svo., Paris, 1822. 



SWELL. [ORGAN.] 



SWIFTEST PROPAGATION. [UNDULATORY THEORY.] 



SWORD MANUFACTURE. Weapons of offence were early fabri- 

 cated by the cutlers of Sheffield. Holland (' Manufactures in Metal') 

 gives a representation of two men grinding a sword-blade, copied from 

 a manuscript psalter, written about the time of King Stephen, which 

 is preserved in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, and which 

 probably represents Ihe usual construction of grinding machinery at 

 that time. The grindstone is mounted upon a horizontal axis, which 

 one man turns by means of a crank ; and the sword, which is straight 

 and pointed, is pressed down iipon its periphery by the other man, 

 who sits on a beam above the level of the stone, so that his weight 

 may be conveniently thrown upon the sword, to press it firmly against 

 the stone. 



But while there can be no doubt of the extensive manufacture of 

 swords in England at an early period, the blades made in Spain and 

 Italy, and more especially those brought from the East, bore the pre- 

 eminence. The swords of Toledo were sought after on account of 

 their admirable temper, in the time of the Moors, and even under the 

 Romans. It has been supposed that they were indebted for their 

 valuable qualities to some peculiar property in the water of the Tagus, 

 which is used in tempering them. In the early period of the French 

 invasion, the manufactory was removed to Seville, where the national 

 junto then was ; but it was found that the swords manufactured on 

 the banks of the Guadalquivir were very inferior to those which the 

 same workmen had made at Toledo. In the time of the crusades, and 

 down to a much later period, Milan supplied swords of excellent 

 quality in large numbers. But, celebrated as these and the Spanish 

 blades deservedly were, those from the East were still more highly 

 prized, and enormous sums were often given for them, Of all the 

 sabres, the fame of which has reached this country, those of Damascus 

 are by far the most noted. Very few persons indeed have seen them ; 

 and fewer still have been the instances in which the blades themselves 

 have confirmed those strange stories about their temper which are so 

 generally circulated, and received among persons who know but little 

 of the nature of steel. The characteristics ascribed to the real 

 Damascus blades are, extraordinary keenness of edge, great flexibility 

 of substance, a singular grain and fleckiness observable upon the 

 surface, and a peculiar musky odour given out by any friction of the 

 blade. Their quality, undoubtedly excellent as it must be, has been 

 greatly exaggerated ; the extraordinary powers of execution attributed 

 to Damascus blades are, in a great measure, dependent upon the 

 strength and dexterity of the user. A gentleman who purchased one 

 of these sabres in the East Indies for a thousand piastres, informed 

 Mr. Holland that, although it was very flexible, and bore a fine keen 

 edge, it could not be safely bent to more than 45 from a straight line, 

 and it was not nearly so sharp as a razor ; yet, when wielded by a 

 skilful hand, it would cut through a thick roll of sail-cloth without 

 apparent difficulty. The swordsman who tried it could, it appears, do 

 nearly the same thing with a good European blade. 



About the year 1689 an attempt was made to improve and extend 

 the sword manufacture of England by the incorporation of a company 

 of sword-cutlers for making hollow sword-blades in Cumberland and 



