971 SYRINGE, CONDENSING AND EXHAUSTING. 



SYZVGIES AND QUADRATURES. 



072 



small hole*. In the latter case it ia usual to add a nozzle of compara- 

 tively large bore, through which water in allowed to enter, although a 

 self acting valve prevents it from returning the same way. 

 different caps may be fitted to the same syringe ; those for throwing 

 jets having the injection ami ejection no/./les side by side, while those 

 for producing showers have the injection nozzle in the centre of the 

 rose. Syringes may also be applied with advantage in w.i.-liinjj car- 

 riagee, cleaning windows, and for other useful purpoies. Mr. Baddelcy 

 has introduced many improvements in garden-syringe*. 



In medicine anil surgery syringes of various kinds are employed in 

 administering clysters; in injecting fluids into, or removing them from, 

 imaoh or bladder ; injecting liquids into wounds; and injecting 

 coloured liquors or melted wax into veins, *c., in anatomical prcira- 

 tions. The application of the syringe as a stomach-pump is peculiarly 

 important. In this case a flexible tube is put into the mouth of the 

 patient, with a guard between the teeth to preserve it from injury, and 

 a branch pipe is added to supply the syringe with liquid from a vessel, 

 when it is used for injection, and to afford a channel for the escape of 

 the abstracted liquid when the syringe is employed to empty the 

 stomach. By an ingenious arrangement of valves, the same instrument 

 may be so modified as to act equally well in either way. One method 

 of using such an instrument is, first to inject a diluent into the 

 h, and then to pump it back again, together with the injurious 

 matter which it is desired to remove. Another plan is to inject a 

 fluid into the stomach until an involuntary discharge takes place 

 through the mouth, and to continue the operation until the stomach is 

 cleansed, this being indicated by the fluid returning unchanged. 



Mr. .lames Harris, of Plymouth, in 1822, devised a method of pre- 

 serving oil-colours for painting in syringes formed of tin, or of brass 

 tinned internally. A similar contrivance, in which the details dill'er 

 from Mr. Harris's, although the same principle, that of propelling the 

 piston by means of a screw, is preserved, has been brought into use ; 

 but tubes of very thin metal, from which the colour is expressed by 

 collapsing the tube between the finger anil thumb, without the use of 

 a piston, have nearly superseded all other contrivances. 



sVlilNGE, CONDENSING AND EXHAUSTING. [AiR-PcMr.] 



SVKINCIX. [LILACIX.] 



SYRUPS are medicinal solutions of sugar, either in water alone, as 

 in simple syrup, or in liquids charged with some peculiar principle of 

 an active kind, such as senna or buckthorn, or merely grateful from its 

 colour or fragrance, or both, such as syrup of violets. These must be 

 of a proper consistence, either by having a suitable quantity of sugar 

 added to the water at first, or by subsequent evaporation of the super- 

 fluous water. The former is the preferable mode, as the syrup keeps 

 better. The purest and most thoroughly refined sugar should be 

 employed, and generally in the proportion of two parts of sugar to one 

 of fluid. Less sugar is needed where acid syrups are to be made, as in 

 syrup of mulberries, and still less where vinous syrups are made. 

 V\'hen made, the syrup is to be preserved in closely-stopped bottles, 

 and kept in a cool place, the temperature of which never exceeds ,">5 J 

 Falir. ; but, with every precaution, fermentation is apt to occur, par- 

 ticularly if warm or boiling water has been employed to extract the 

 vegetable principle, when cold water is most appropriate : so also with 

 the syrup of poppies, which, when given in a state of fermentation to 

 children, too often aggravates the disorder of the bowels it was 

 intended to alleviate. To counteract the tendency to fermentation, 

 rectified spirit is enjoined to be added to the sugar an expensive 

 proceeding, quite needless when cold water only is used in the pre- 

 ceding stage-. When too little sugar is used, fermentation is still 

 more apt to occur ; when too much, the excess crystallises. Syrups 



are more used for their fragrance or colour than for their mo.i 

 properties, which few possess to any important extent, except, -\ nip ,.f 

 poppies, the cause of a larger mortality among children, especially of 

 the poor, than any other drug: Bee Christison on ! 

 Reports of the Registrar-General, almost weekly, especially 17th Nov., 

 1860. The number of syrups might well lie diminished. 



SYSTEM ^Astronomy). This term is applied to every theory of 



the disposition and internal arrangements of the solar system, or of the 



material creation generally. Thus we have the system of Ptolemy, 



rnicus, &c. Perhaps a short description of the distinctive 



characters of the different systems may be useful in a work of 



nee. 



Ptolemaic. The earth is an absolutely fixed centre, and the p] 

 revolve in circlesabout centres which themselves revolve round tin eaitli. 



Co/>ernican. The sun is a centre, round which the planets n 

 Some of the machinery of the Ptolemaic system is retained. 



Tychonic. The sun is a centre of motion to all the planets, which 

 revolve round it, while the sun and. planetary orbits are c 

 together round the earth as a fixed centre. 



Semi-Tycluniic. The sun is a centre of motion to Mercury and 

 Venus, as in the Tychonic, and the motions of the other planets arc as 

 in the Ptolemaic system. 



There is no fixed centre, the sun only approximating 

 to that character from its greater magnitude. The orbits of the i 

 are approximately represented by ellipses, exactly by ellipses of which 

 the elements vary. 



The Newtonian system is frequently called Copernican, from its 

 rejecting what Copernicus rejected ; but it is far from receiving all 

 that Copernicus received. The introduction of the ellipse is due to 

 Kepler. We have not included the system of Des Cartes [Yin 

 because it has reference to physical causes, and contains no peculiarity 

 of arrangement. [PTOLEMAIC SYSTEM; BRAHE (Tvi 

 and NEWTON, in BIOG. Div. ; PUINCIPIA ; GRAVITATION ; SOLAII SYS- 

 TEM, &c.] 



The term system is also applied to the subdivisions of the solar 

 system : thus we have the terrestrial, Jovial, Saturnian, Urauian 

 systems. 



SYSTEM (Mathematics), a word little used : we hear sometimes of 

 a system of equations, or a system of curves or surfaces ; the former 

 meaning a set of equations which are related to each other iu tin 

 problem, the latter a class of curves or surfaces which are connee; 

 any law. 



SYSTEM, in the musical language of the Greeks, had the same 

 signification as the word Scale hai in modern music. [SCALE.] Kach 

 of the many genera of the ancients was a system in itself, if we may 

 venture to assert anything positively concerning a subject which is 

 involved in much obscurity. [GKNEHA.] 



In modern music the term Hi/stem is applied to any theory of 

 harmony, that is to say, of the origin of chords, and of the manner of 

 treating them in composition. Thus we have the systems of Ramcau, 

 Tartini, Kirnberger, &c. The system of Guido d'Arezzo, or that 

 ascribed to him, included the elements of our present mode of nota- 

 tion ; also the division of the scales into hexachords, and a ui 

 solmisation founded on such division. [GtjlDO D'AREXZO, in Bloc.. 1 M v ; 

 Hi:x.\inouDs.] 



SYZYGIES AND QUADRATURES. Thesyzygies of a planet or of 

 the moon are those points of its orbit at which it is in conjunction or 

 opposition with the sun : the quadratures are the precisely intermediate 

 positions. Thus at new and full moon the moon is jnsyzygies; at 

 half uioon, in quadratm 



