190 



SKLEUCIA i- ELKIRRSHIRF. 



sulphureted hydrogen: the solution precipitating 

 oil the metals from their solutions. It reddens 

 vegetable blues, and has other acid characters. 

 When selenium is dropped into melted phosphorus, 

 it dissolves rapidly, and the compound sinks through 

 the liquid phosphorus in red streaks. When phos- 

 phorus is saturated with selenium, we obtain a 

 very fusible compound, of a dark brown colour, a 

 good deal of lustre, and a vitreous fracture. A 

 sulphuret of selenium may also be formed: it has a 

 deep orange colour; softens at 212, and becomes 

 liquid at a temperature a few degrees higher. 

 Nothing is known respecting the combinations of 

 selenium with nitrogen, carbon, boron, and silicon. 

 Selenium is still a very scarce substance. The 

 analogy between it and sulphur is very remarkable. 

 We have recently found selenium in several inter- 

 esting metallic combinations in the Oriental 

 Hartz: 1. Seleniuret of lead is the most frequent 

 of these. It consists of 27'7 selenium and 72 3 

 lead. 2. Seleniuret of lead and cobalt. Its consti- 

 tuents are 



Lead. 



Cobalt. 



Selenium, 



l.OJS 



63-92 

 3-14 



31 '4-=! 

 0-45 



1-07 



100-00 



3. Seleniuret af lead and copper. Of this mineral 

 there are two varieties, composed as follows: 



Selenium, 



Iron, with traces of lead, 



Lea.!, 



Iron, . 



Copper, 



h.:ver, . 



29-96 34-20 

 0-44 2-08 



59-67 47-43 

 0-33 



7-86 18-45 

 1-29 



4. Seleniuret of lead and mercury contains 



Selenium, 

 Lead, . 

 Mercury, 



24-97 

 55-84 

 lfi-94 

 2-25 



100-00 



SELEUCI A ; the name of several cities in Asia, 

 founded by Seleucus Nicator. One of the most 

 celebrated was that which was made the capital of 

 Babylonia, in place of Babylon, situated about 

 thirty miles distant from the latter city. The 

 Tigris and Euphrates flowed near its walls, and 

 rendered it one of the richest commercial cities of 

 ancient times. The number of its inhabitants is 

 estimated to have been about 600,000, chiefly 

 Greeks. It was destroyed in the time of the Roman 

 emperor Verus. 



SELEUCIDjE. See Seleucus. 



SELEUCIDES, ERA OF THE. See Epoch. 



SELEUCUS NICATOR, OR NICANOR; son 

 of Antiochus, one of the most distinguished generals 

 of Alexander the Great, who invested him with the 

 government of Babylonia and Media. After the 

 death of Alexander, Seleucus assumed the title of 

 king of Syria, and reduced to his sway all the 

 countries from the Hellespont to India and the 

 Jaxartes. His descendants were called, from him, 

 the Seleucidce, and the era of the Seleucidae dates 

 from his reign. (See Epoch.} After several successful 

 wars against Antigonus, Demetrius, and Lysima- 

 thus, he was murdered in the seventy-eighth year 

 of his age (B. C. 280), by one of his courtiers, 

 Ptolemaeus Ceraunus. Seleucus was eminent for 

 his courage, prudence, and humanity. He encou- 

 raged letters, and restored to Greece the books and , 



monuments ot art that had been carried off by 

 Xerxes. The Athenians, from gratitude, erected 

 a statue in honour of him at the entrance of tlie 

 portico ot the academy. This prince founded 

 thirty-four cities in Asia, which he. peopled with 

 Greek colonies. He was the father and benefactor 

 of his subjects. 



SELIM III. Sec Ottoman Empire, and Mali- 

 mood II. 



SELJOOKS, OR SELJUKS ; a Turkish dynasty, 

 whose empire extended over Asia Minor and Syria, 

 and whose power declined in the period of the 

 crusades. The name was derived from Seljuk, a 

 Turkman, who had been in the service of the 

 chagan of the Chazars, and had been obliged to flee 

 from the camp of his master. He became the leader 

 of a horde composed of various tribes; and his 

 grandson Togrul Beg or Bey conquered Bagdad, 

 1060, was made sultan by the caliph, and left the 

 dignity of Emir el Omrah to his descendants, who 

 held it till 1152. The most celebrated of his suc- 

 cessors, Malek Shah, surnamed Gelaleddin, died in 

 1092. In 1104, the empire was divided among 

 several dynasties, of which that of Iconium (1074 

 1308) survived the longest. It was succeeded by 

 that of the Ottomans. See Ottoman Empire; also 

 the work of Wilken and Raumer CCI Emenda 

 tiones in Lohmeieri et Gebhardii Tabula genealo- 

 gicce Dynastiarum Arabicarum et Turcicarum (Heid- 

 elberg, 1811). 



SELKIRK, ALEXANDER. See Robinson Crusoe. 



SELKIRK; a small royal burgh of Scotland, 

 the capital of Selkirkshire, is situated on the banks 

 of the Ettrick, at the distance of thirty-six miles 

 south from Edinburgh. It is a place of consider- 

 able antiquity, and long continued to be a part of 

 the demesnes of the crown. The inhabitants of 

 Selkirk distinguished themselves by their bravery 

 at the battle of Flodden field. Of one hundred 

 townsmen who followed James IV. to the field, 

 only a few returned, but they brought back some 

 trophies of their valour, including a standard yet in 

 the possession of the corporation of weavers. Sel- 

 kirk has long been noted for the manufacture of 

 shoes. The town, within the last twenty or thirty 

 years, has been greatly improved, the streets having 

 been levelled and paved, some buildings removed 

 from the middle of the street, and many new houses 

 erected, together with a town-house, comprising 

 apartments for the courts, for the use of the corpora- 

 tion, and also a library. At the outskirt of the 

 town a new prison has been built, surrounded by a 

 high wall, including an area in which the prisoners 

 may take exercise. Population of burgh and parish 

 in 1831, 2833; in 1841, 3484. 



SELKIRKSHIRE; a county in the south of 

 Scotland, anciently called the sheriffwich of Ettrick 

 or Ettrick Forest, from an extensive forest, there, 

 in which were numerous herds of red and fallow 

 deer, kept by the Scottish princes, who had several 

 hunting-seats in this part of the country. The 

 woods have been nearly all cut down, and where 

 the deer formerly roved, large flocks of sheep now 

 find pasture. This is a mountainous district, but 

 it is intersected by valleys, through which flow the 

 Ettrick, the Yarrow, the Gala, and the Tweed, 

 with many smaller streams, whose beauties have 

 been repeatedly celebrated in pastoral song. Sel- 

 kirkshire is twenty-seven miles long from south- 

 west to north-east, and sixteen miles broad, ex- 

 elusive of a small detached part on the east. It 

 comprises a superficies of 263 square miles, or 



