SLOE SMALL POX. 



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royal society, of which he had previously been 

 secretary. His Natural History of Jamaica (1707 

 1725) was the result of his observations in that 

 island. George I. created him a baronet in 1716, 

 and. on the accession of George II., he was named 

 physician in ordinary to his majesty. His death 

 took place in 175'2. See British Museum. 



SLOE. See Plum. 



SLOOP, in naval affairs; a small vessel fur- 

 nished with one mast. Sloops of war are vessels 

 commanded by officers of a middle rank between 

 a lieutenant and post-captain: these are styled 

 masters and commanders. They carry from ten to 

 eighteen guns, and are variously rigged, as ships, 

 brigs, schooners, and sometimes cutters. 



SLOPS ; a name given to clothes for seamen. 



SLOTH (bradypus). This name is given to two 

 singularly constructed South American quadrupeds, 

 remarkable for the extreme slowness of their mo- 

 tions, the accounts of which, however, have been 

 somewhat exaggerated. The teeth are all cylin- 

 drical, the canines being longer and sharper than 

 the rest. The toes are all united and enclosed un- 

 der the common skin, the nails only appearing ex- 

 ternally. These last are enormously large, com- 

 pressed and curved, and when the animal is in a 

 state of repose, are bent under along the soles of 

 the feet. The feet are articulated obliquely upon 

 the bones of the leg, and the outer margin only 

 rests upon the earth ; the bones of the toes are 

 closely articulated, admitting of but little motion, 

 and, for want of use, unite at a certain age, and 

 form a solid piece. The fore feet or arms are much 

 longer than the hinder ; and when the sloth is upon 

 the ground, it is obliged to draw itself along upon 

 its elbows. The thighs are directed laterally, and 

 the pelvis is so large, that the animal cannot bring 

 together its knees. The internal structure is not 

 less remarkable. The sloths are exceedingly 

 helpless when on the ground, and seem at home 

 only when upon trees, and, as is well observed by 

 Waterton, when resting or moving, suspended be- 

 neath their branches. They feed on leaves. The 

 three-toed sloth has its arms twice as long as the 

 feet, and the body is covered with coarse hair, resem- 

 bling withered grass; the colour is gray, often 

 marked on the back with brown and white. It is 

 the only quadruped which has nine vertebrae to the 

 neck. The two-toed sloth differs somewhat in its 

 anatomical characters from the preceding, and, to 

 our eyes, seems less unfortunately constituted. The 

 fossil bones, and sometimes the entire skeleton of 

 a gigantic animal nearly related to the sloths, have 

 been found in various parts of the American conti- 

 nent, from Buenos Ayres to the southern parts of 

 the United States. They show an extinct quad- 

 ruped about twelve feet long and six or seven in 

 height. It has received the name of megatherium. 

 (q. v.). The bones of another extinct quadruped, 

 less than the former, but closely related to it, have 

 been, found in the limestone caves of the western 

 country. It has received the name of megalonyx 

 (q. v.), from the large size of the nails. 



SLOUGH; a village of England, in Buckingham- 

 shire, twenty-one miles west of London, where the 

 celebrated doctor Herschel had his residence and 

 observatory. 



SMALKALDIC LEAGUE; the union, con- 

 cluded in March, 1531, by nine Protestant princes 

 and counts, and eleven free cities, for the mutual 

 defence of their faith and political independence 

 against Charles V. and the Catholic states, at 

 vr. 



Smalkalden, in Henneberg, at first for six years. 

 It was confirmed by the conventions at Frankfort, 

 in July and December of the same year. It was 

 greatly strengthened by a third convention at Smal- 

 kalden, in 1535, by the admission of new members, 

 the extension of the term of the league to ten years, 

 and the resolution to keep on foot an army of 

 12,000 men. In 1537, it received a new bond of 

 union in the articles drawn up by Luther, and 

 signed by the theologians present at Smalkalden. 

 These were called the Smalkaldic articles. Their 

 original object was to serve as a representation of 

 the Protestant faith at the council of Mantua, an- 

 nounced by the pope. The council was never held, 

 but the articles, which were entirely in conformity 

 with the Augsburg confession, were received among 

 the symbolical books of the Lutheran church. Their 

 violence proves the embittered feelings of Luther 

 and his party. See Reformation. 



SMALL POX; an eruptive fever, which, in its 

 pustules, engenders an infectious matter, by means 

 of which the disease may be communicated to other 

 persons, who have not been before attacked by it. 

 After the infection has taken place, about seven 

 days pass before the virus operates and produces 

 the disease. Then a feverish shivering pervades 

 the body, which regularly lasts about three days ; 

 after which a number of red spots appear, first in 

 the face, then over the breast, hands, and the whole 

 body, sometimes very numerous, sometimes in a 

 small number. This eruption also lasts about three 

 days. From the spots rise pustules, which become 

 inflamed and suppurate. The fever, in the mean- 

 time, continues without intermission. After the 

 suppuration, the pustules begin to dry up, and to 

 form a crust a change which generally commences 

 about the eleventh day. Commonly, the small-pox 

 virus infects but once. A person who has had the 

 small-pox will not have it again; nor does this 

 virus infect at all times; on the contrary, it seems 

 that a person must have a certain susceptibility for 

 it ; for numerous instances have occurred in small- 

 pox epidemics of persons being spared who became 

 infected at a later period, and even of some who 

 have escaped during their whole life. According 

 to some Arabic writers, this -disease, as well as the 

 measles, came first from Ethiopia to Arabia, about 

 A. D. 572. In the first half of the seventh cen- 

 tury, it passed to Egypt. The wars which were 

 carried on in the East, and particularly the crusades 

 in the thirteenth century, introduced it into Europe, 

 first into Spain and France, and then into the other 

 countries. When Maximilian I. made an expedition 

 to the Netherlands, upon the termination of which 

 the men at arms returned to Germany through the 

 French provinces, the small-pox was carried by them 

 from France, for the first time, into Germany, in 

 1495. From Europe it was transplanted to Ame- 

 rica and Africa; from Denmark it found its 

 way, in 1733, even to Greenland. Whenever it 

 appears in a country for the first time, it is more 

 fatal, and makes greater ravages, than after having 

 prevailed for some time. As this disease is propa- 

 gated only by infection, it has been thought possible 

 to extirpate it by the strict separation of the 

 infected from the healthy. The obstacles, how- 

 ever, arising from the present situation of nations 

 and the general diffusion of the disease in all coun- 

 tries and climates, seem to render such a plan im- 

 practicable. The violence of the disorder, how- 

 ever, is lessened when it is produced artificially by 

 inoculation with the small-pox virus. Inoculation 



