SEX SEYMOUR. 



211 



tion of sonnets; and in 1804, appeared her Life of 100 seconds, &c.) is over the sexagesimal division; 

 Doctor Darwin. She died at the Episcopal palace but as this change was one of the effects which the 

 at Lichfield, in 1809. Her correspondence was j revolution produced in France, the sexagesimal divi- 

 published, with a biographical memoir, in 6 vols., j sion gained ground again under the elder line of the 

 8vo. Bourbons. Biot often expresses the results of his 



SEX is the term used to designate the two calculations according to both divisions; and to 

 divisions of all organic bodies into male and female, i show how different the expressions are, we will only 

 It is a law of nature, that all organic bodies shall state that the sun's parallax is, according to the 



be produced by their like, and each class is endowed 

 with particular organs appropriated to this service, 

 which constitute the distinction of sexes. In the 

 vegetable world, the sexes are, for the most part, 

 united in one bud; although, in many classes, they 



sexagesimal division, 8", 8 and according 



to the centesimal (less properly called decimal), 



27", 1 



SEXTANT; an instrument for taking altitudes 

 and other angular distances. It is constructed on 



are distributed in different flowers upon the same a principle similar to the quadrant; but the arc, 



plant, or upon different plants. Among animals, 

 especially the more perfectly formed, the division 

 of the sexes is complete. In general, the male sex, 

 in comparison with the female, is stronger; the 

 female more delicate and tender. The fundamental 



containing a sixth part of a circle, may be taken to 

 120 Sextants are generally fitted [with apparatuses 

 for ascertaining the angular distances, &c., in lunar 

 observations. 



SEXTUS (surnamed Empiricus, from his he- 



characters of the two sexes appear more or less longing to the empiric school of medicine) was a 

 distinctly in most kinds of living beings, till in man celebrated sceptic, who flourished towards the close 

 they are found in a degree of development corres- of the second century. He was probably a Greek 

 ponding to his rank in creation. The muscular i by birth, studied at Alexandria and Athens, became 

 system of man is firmer and more powerful ; his j a_ pupil of the sceptic philosopher Herodotus of 

 chest wider, his lungs more capacious and stronger; 

 the outlines of his form are more distinct, and his 

 whole frame larger and stronger. The female form 



is more slender; the bones are smaller and softer; 

 the flesh less solid ; the chest narrower ; the lungs 

 smaller; the heart and arterial system weaker: on 

 the other hand, the venous and lymphatic systems 

 predominate (thus inclining the person to delicacy 

 and inactivity); the space between the skin and 

 the interior parts is more loaded with fat; and thus 

 the contour is more rounded, forming the waving 

 line; the whole proportion, in fine, of the body 

 smaller, and more delicate. Hence the form of 

 man conveys the idea of strength; the form of 

 woman, that of beauty. Man is more active, 



Tarsus, and combined extensive learning with great 

 acuteness. Scepticism appears in his writings in 

 the most perfect state which it had reached in an- 

 cient times ; and its object and method are more 



clearly developed than they had been by his prede- 

 cessors. (See Scepticism.^) He is often sophistical 

 in the application of his sceptical principles. We 

 have two works by him, written in the Greek 

 language, and which are the source of our know- 

 ledge of the Greek sceptical philosophy. One of 

 them, entitled Institutes of Pyrrhonism (in three 

 books), explains the method of Pyrrho (q. v.); the 

 other, entitled Against the Mathematicians, is an 

 attempt to apply that method to all the prevailing 

 philosophical systems, and other branches of know- 



grasping distant objects; more inclined to effort, ledge. Fabricius edited both works (Sexti Empirici 



to occupy his faculties upon abstract subjects, and 

 extensive plans. The quick and violent passions 

 belong to the man; the quiet, the domestic, and 

 the retiring, to woman. The woman is confined 

 to a smaller circle, with which, however, she is 

 more thoroughly acquainted; and is more patient 

 and enduring in the performance of the ordinary 

 duties of life. Man must acquire; woman strives 

 to keep: man strives to effect his object by 

 force; woman by kindness or by cunning. The 

 one is busied with the bustle of out-door life, 

 the other is devoted to domestic quiet. Man la- 

 bours in the sweat of his brow, and, exhausted by 

 his efforts, requires deep repose ; woman is always 

 busy in a quiet activity. 



SEXAGESIMALS, OR SEXAGESIMAL 

 FRACTIONS ; fractions whose denominators pro- 

 ceed in a sexagecuple ratio , that is, a prime, or the 

 first minute, ^- a second = ^n?; a third = 

 Anciently there were no other than sex- 



agesimals used in astronomy ; and they are still re- 

 tained in many cases, though decimal arithmetic has 

 now grown into use in astronomical calculations. 

 In these fractions, which some call astronomical 

 fractions, the denominator, being always sixty, or a 

 multiple thereof, is usually omitted, and the nume- 

 rator only written down, thus, 4 Q 59 32'' 56"' 16"" 

 is to be read, four degrees, fifty-nine minutes, thirty- 

 two seconds, fifty thirds, sixteen fourths, &c. It 

 is readily seen how great the advantage of the 

 decimal division (according to which the circle has 

 400 degrees, each degree 100 minutes, each minute 



Opera, Gr. et Lot., Leipsic, 1718). 



SEXUAL SYSTEM. See Botany. 



SEYD, OR ZEID; the name of a slave of Mo- 

 hammed, who was one of the first to acknowledge 

 the divine mission of his master, was adopted by 

 him, and received Zeinab, a cousin of Mohammed, 

 as his wife ; the prophet, however, having fallen in 

 love with her himself, Seyd was ready to resign 

 her. Voltaire, in his Mahomet, makes Seyd an in- 

 nocent but blindly submissive youth, who, at the 

 prophet's order, kills a person, who turns out to be 

 his own father. Seyd is therefore sometimes used 

 to denote a man blindly devoted to the will of 

 another. Thus St Just is called by Mr Nodier the 

 Seyd of Robespierre ; and the duke of Rovigo says 

 in his Memoirs, that he has often been taken for 

 the Seyd of Napoleon. 



SEYMOUR, EDWARD ; duke of Somerset in the 

 reign of Edward VI., to whom he was maternal 

 uncle, being the son of sir John Seymour, of Wolf, 

 hall, in Wiltshire, and brother of lady Jane Seymour, 

 the third wife of Henry VIII. He was educated 

 at Oxford, and early devoted himself to the military 

 profession. On the marriage of his sister with the 

 king, in 1536, he was raised to the peerage, by the 

 title of viscount Beauchamp, and the following year 

 created earl of Hertford. He commanded in a 

 maritime expedition against the Scots, in 1544, 

 when he landed a body of troops at Leith, and set 

 fire to the city of Edinburgh. On the death of 

 Henry VIII., he rose to unbounded power, both in 



the church and state. 



By the will of Henry ha 

 o 2 



