SCOTUS SCROFULA. 



167 



innumerable portraits, busts, and medallions, by 

 which they have been commemorated. In private 

 lite, Sir Walter was distinguished for uprightness 

 nnd purity of character, for great simplicity and 

 kindliness of manners, and benevolence of heart. 



In the Memoirs of Sir Walter Scott, by Mr 

 Lockhart a work characterised by manly frankness 

 of detail, and felicity of expression we are told, 

 that when Sir Walter, in the presence of George 

 IV., denied being the author of Waverley, the 

 king, in a well-turned compliment, said he was 

 glad to hear it, for it was a higher boast to have 

 two such brilliant writers as the authors of Mar- 

 mion and Waverley, than one. But although the 

 writings of Scott are sufficient, in extent and 

 variety, to have, established a dozen literary reputa- 

 tions, the poet and novelist are, in almost all their 

 distinguishing features, the same. In abandoning 

 poetry for prose, Scott left behind him only the 

 trammels of verse ; he brought to the new arena 

 the same charms with which he had fascinated the 

 world in the old, and he gathered fresh vigour from 

 the greater freedom with which he could now wield 

 them, and the wider field which he had chosen for 

 their display. The amazing powers of invention 

 and description, whether of character or situation 

 the comprehensive knowledge of manners in bye- 

 gone times the relish of nature in all her moods 

 and the healthy elasticity of spirit, which were so 

 largely shown in his poetical works were dis- 

 played even more abundantly in his prose produc- 

 tions ; and in addition he was now no longer pre- 

 cluded, by the restrictions of poetical composition, 

 from depicting scenes of every day life and homely 

 feeling, in which he proved so great a master, nor 

 from indulging in that exquisite yet ever charitable 

 sense of the ludicrous, which was so singularly 

 blended, in the composition of his character, with a 

 high sympathy for whatever, in feeling or action, 

 was dignified, generous, or romantic. Of all his 

 works, his early novels, drawn from the resources 

 of a heart fraught with humanity, and a memory 

 stored with observation, are undoubtedly those upon 

 which his fame will eventually rest. His poems, with 

 all their attractions, and even the more ambitious 

 of his prose romances, Ivanhoe, Kenil worth, and the 

 like, being necessarily somewhat built on artificial 

 principles, may, in the changes of literature, cease 

 to be imitated or read ; but The Antiquary, The 

 Heart of Mid-Lothian, Guy Mannering, Waverley, 

 and Old Mortality, are, we conceive, imperishable, 

 and can only cease to be relished when mankind 

 cease to venerate nature and truth. 



SCOTUS, DUNS. See Duns. 



SCOTUS, JOHN. See Erigena. 



SCOUGAL, HENRY, an eminent Scotch divine, 

 born in 1650, was educated in the university of St 

 Andrews, where he became professor of Oriental 

 philology at the age of twenty. In 1673, he was 

 presented by his college to a living, but recalled 

 the following year, and made professor of theology. 

 His great exertions, both in this capacity and as a 

 preacher, threw him into a consumption, and he 

 died, greatly lamented, in 1678, at the early age of 

 twenty-eight. He was the author of an eloquent 

 and able work, entitled, The Life of God in the 

 Soul of Man, which has run through many editions; 

 and also of Nine Sermons, by which he- acquired 

 the reputation of being one of the most elegant 

 writers and able divines of his country and age. 



SCREW, in mechanics. See Mechanics. 



SCREW PINE. The species of pandanus are 



all natives of the tropical parts of the eastern con- 

 tinent, and are among the most ornamental produc- 

 tions of the vegetable world. The P. odoratissi- 

 mus is a large, spreading, branching shrub, with 

 very long leaves, which are spiny on the back and 

 margin, somewhat resembling in form those of the 

 pine-apple, and which are disposed in three spiral 

 rows round the extremities of the branches. It 

 grows in all soils and situations in the tropical parts 

 of Asia, and is much employed there for hedges. 

 The tender white leaves of the flowers, chiefly 

 those of the male, yield that most delightful fra- 

 grance, by far the richest and most powerful of the 

 perfumes, for which they are so generally esteemed, 

 and for which the plant is cultivated in Japan. 

 The lower pulpy part of the drupe is sometimes 

 eaten by the natives in times of scarcity, but the 

 taste is very disagreeable; the tender white base of 

 the leaves is also employed for food at such times. 

 The leaves are composed of longitudinal tough 

 fibres; and in the South Sea islands these or the 

 leaves of some other species are used for making 

 mats. In the Sandwich islands, the mats are hand- 

 somely worked in a variety of patterns, and stained 

 of different colours. The plant is called wharra 

 tree, at Otaheite. 



SCRIBES, among the Jews, were officers of the 

 law. There were civil and ecclesiastical scribes. 

 The former were employed about any kind of civil 

 writings or records. The latter studied, tran- 

 scribed and explained the Holy Scriptures. 



SCROFULA, scrophula; (from scrofa, a swine; 

 because this animal is said to be much subject to a 

 similar disorder) ; a disease of children, consisting 

 in hard tumors of the glands in various parts of the 

 body, but particularly in the neck, behind the ears, 

 and under the chin, which, after a time, suppurate, 

 and degenerate into ulcers, from which, instead of 

 pus, a white curdled matter is discharged. The 

 first appearance of the disease is most usually be- 

 tween the third and seventh year of the child's 

 age ; but it may arise at any period between this 

 and the age of puberty; after which it seldom 

 makes its first attack. It most commonly affects 

 children of a lax habit, with smooth, fine skins, 

 fair hair and rosy cheeks. It likewise is apt to at- 

 tack such children as show a disposition to rickets. 

 Like this disease, it seems to be peculiar to cold 

 and variable climates, being rarely met with in 

 warm ones. Scrofula is by no means a contagious 

 disease, but is of a hereditary nature, and is often 

 entailed by parents on their children. The attacks 

 of the disease seem much affected or influenced by 

 the periods of the seasons. They begin usually 

 some time in the winter and spring, and often dis- 

 appear, or are greatly amended, in summer and au- 

 tumn. The first appearance of the disorder is 

 commonly in that of small oval or spherical tumors 

 under the skin, unattended by any pain or dis- 

 colouration. These appear, in general, upon the 

 sides of the neck, below the ear or under the chin , 

 but, in some cases, the joints of the elbows or 

 ankles, or those of the fingers and toes, are the 

 parts first affected. In these instances we do not, 

 however, find small, moveable swellings, but, on 

 the contrary, a tumor almost uniformly surround- 

 ing the joint, and interrupting its motion. After 

 some time, the tumors become larger and more 

 fixed, the skin which covers them acquires a purple 

 or livid colour, and being much inflamed, they at 

 last suppurate, and break into little holes, from 

 which, at first, a matter somewhat purifonn 



