SANH EDRIN SANSCR IT. 



93 



covered by Mr A. A. Hayes, of Roxbury, in the 

 root of the sanyuinaria Canadensis, or blood-root. 

 It is obtained as follows: Digest the bruised root 

 in three parts of cold diluted sulphuric acid (water 

 ten, acid one) : after twenty-four hours, decant the 

 fluid, and repeat the operations twice, using water 

 but slightly acidulated; mix the liquors, and filter, 

 and to the clear red liquor which passes, add a 

 solution of ammonia, so long as it occasions preci- 

 pitation; decant the fluid after subsidence, and 

 wash the brown precipitate in cold water; it is 

 sanguinarina combined with extractive and colour- 

 ing matter, and mixed with some earths. Dissolve 

 the soluble part in warm alcohol, and wash with 

 the same ; distil the clear fluid from a glass retort ; 

 when the solution becomes turbid by concentration, 

 it must be decanted, while hot, into cylindrical ves- 

 sels, one half filled with pure cold water ; the alkali 

 is precipitated in the form of a yellowish-white 

 bulky powder, mingled with a substance insoluble 

 in diluted acids, and resembling resin ; by dissolving 

 the soluble part in muriatic acid with ten of water, 

 precipitating by ammonia, and treating as above, 

 the alkali is obtained pure. It is a soft white 

 powder, destitute of odour, but having a bitter acrid 

 taste. It renders blue vegetable colours green; 

 when heated, it melts into a brown, transparent, 

 and brittle substance. It dissolves in most acids, 

 and forms along with them neutral salts of a pure 

 scarlet-red colour. The salts are soluble in water 

 to which they communicate their red colour. They 

 are inodorous ; but their powders produces great 

 irritation in the nostrils. They are all precipitated 

 by infusion of galls, and are decomposed by alkalies 

 and alkaline earths. The medicinal virtues of the 

 salts of sanguinarina are chiefly deobstruent, acrid- 

 narcotic, and emetic. The efficacy of the blood- 

 root is attributable solely to the presence of this 

 alkali. 



SANHEDRIN (Syriac), OR SYNEDRIUM 

 (Greek); literally a council. The highest eccle- 

 siastical and secular court of the Jews, which was 

 established for the decision of their internal differ- 

 ences, and the settlement of their affairs, was called 

 Sanhedrin. It consisted of seventy-one members, 

 of the rank of priests, elders, and interpreters of 

 the law (those skilled in biblical knowledge, or 

 scribes), under the direction of the high-priest. 

 Besides this high council, which had its seat in Je- 

 rusalem, there were also inferior courts in the coun- 

 try towns, composed of persons of the same classes. 

 In Jerusalem there were two of these inferior courts. 

 These national tribunals were limited, by the Ro- 

 man procurators, to the affairs of religion, and the 

 settlement of questions relating to the observance 

 of the Mosaic law ; and they could not, even in j 

 such cases, inflict the punishment of death arbitra- 

 rily. After the destruction of Jerusalem by the 

 Romans, these courts were annihilated, with the 

 Jewish state. The great sanhedrin assembled at 

 Paris, in 1806, by Napoleon, was only an occasional 

 expedient, in order to regulate the civil relations of 

 the Jews in the French empire. 



SAN MARINO. See Marino. 



SANNAZARO, JACOPO, a distinguished Italian 

 poet, who wrote both in Latin and Italian, was 

 born at Naples, in 1458. He received his educa- 

 tion in the school of Giuniano Maggo, and the aca- 

 demy of Pontanus, in which, according to the cus- 

 tom in the Italian academies, he adopted the name 

 of Attius Sincerus. An early passion for Carmo- 

 sina Bonifacia, whose praises he sung under the 



names of Harmosina and Phillis, unfolded his poeti- 

 cal talents. In the hope of conquering his love by 

 separation, he went abroad, but yielding to the im- 

 patience of his passion, returned to Naples, where 

 he found his mistress dead. During his absence lie 

 wrote his Arcadia, a series of itlyls, which, although 

 like his other Italian poems, the work of his youth, 

 still retains its reputation. His poetry attracted 

 the notice of king Ferdinand and his sons Alphonso 

 and Frederic, who made him the companion of their 

 journeys and campaigns. Frederic, who ascended 

 the throne in 1496, gave him the delightful villa of 

 Mergellina, with a pension of 600 ducats. But in 

 1501, his benefactor was obliged to abdicate the 

 throne, and flee to France ; and Sannazaro was too 

 faithful to desert him in his reverses. After the 

 death of Frederic, he returned to Naples and died 

 there in 1533. He was buried in the church Santa 

 Maria del Parto, which he had built at his villa. 

 Sannazaro wrote sonnets and canzoni in Italian, 

 several Latin poems, elegies, eclogues, epigrams, 

 and a longer poem, De Partu Virginis, in three 

 books. His elegance of expression, no less than the 

 poetical beauty of his thoughts, gave him a distin- 

 guished place among the modern Latin poets. 



SANQUHAR ; a royal burgh in Dumfries-shire, 

 is situated on the border of the county, and on the 

 banks of the river Nith, at an equal distance of 

 fifty-six miles from Edinburgh and Glasgow, twenty- 

 seven from Dumfries, and thirty-two from Ayr. 

 This place was made a burgh of barony, by charter, 

 in 1484, previously to which, according to the char- 

 ter, it had been a burgh of the same kind from time 

 immemorial. It was, in 1596, erected into a royalty 

 by James VI., at the solicitation of Robert Crich- 

 ton, Lord of Sanquhar. Before 1777 large quanti- 

 ties of woollen stockings (Sanquhar hose) were 

 made here ; but this manufacture having declined, 

 in consequence of the American war, it has been 

 partly superseded by carpet making. The parish of 

 Sanquhar is about fifteen miles in length, and from 

 nine to ten in breadth ; and the surface is in gene- 

 ral rugged and mountainous, especially the tract 

 called the Lowthers, or Lothiers, hills rising gra- 

 dually towards the north to the height of 3000 feet 

 above the level of the sea. The soil is unfruitful, 

 except on the borders of the Nith and its tributary 

 streams, where it consists of a light loam, and is 

 tolerably productive when properly cultivated. But 

 the hills, though externally barren, contain immense 

 subterraneous treasures. Besides most extensive 

 quarries of limestone and coal, there are mine? of 

 lead ore worked with great advantage, especially at 

 Wanlockhead. Southeast of the town are the ruins 

 of the ancient castle of Sanquhar, which was a 

 strong square building with towers at the angles. 

 It was taken by the English in the reign of Edward 

 I., and retaken by Sir "William Douglas of Douglas- 

 dale, who put the garrison to the sword. The castle 

 and barony now belong to the marquis of Queens- 

 berry. Population of burgh and parish in 1841, 

 3577. 



SANSCRIT, OR SAMSCRIT (that is, the per- 

 fect}, ALSO DEVA-NAGARA (that is, the divine); 

 a Brahminical language (because it is understood 

 now by the Brahmins alone), the present dead lan- 

 guage of the Hindoos, in which the books of their 

 religion and laws, besides many other works of dif- 

 ferent sorts are written. The remarkable simila- 

 rity between the Sanscrit and the Greek languages 

 reminds one of Gibbon's opinion, " that some, perhaps 

 much, of the knowledge possessed by the Indians, 



