SOLEBAY SOLIS. 



ity of physiologists. Tin- hi-ad is remarkably dis- 

 torted, both the eyes being placed on the side 

 which is turned upwards when the animal is in the 

 water. The other, or blind side, is always flat and 

 whitish. Sometimes individuals are found with 

 the eyes placed in a reversed position from the rest 

 of the species ; others have both sides coloured 

 alike, and are called double. This happens most 

 commonly to the brown side, but sometimes to the 

 white also. They are all destitute of a swimming 

 bladder, and rarely leave the bottom. A singular 

 method of taking flounders from the shore is prac- 

 tised at Boston, in the United States, with great 

 success. Two rods are selected ; a hook is attached 

 to the extremity of one, and the sole of a shoe at 

 right angles to that of the other; the latter is 

 vibrated in the water, and attracts the attention of 

 the fish, which, as they rise to visit it, are caught 

 by a sudden jerk of the hook held in the other 

 hand. The season when this mode is practised is 

 when the ice is partially melted. 



SOLEBAY, OR SOUTHWOLD BAY; a bay 

 of the German ocean, on the coast of Suffolk, noted 

 as the scene of a sanguinary naval engagement, in 

 1672, between the combined fleets of England and 

 France, consisting of 101 sail, and that of the Dutch 

 of ninety-one sail. In 1666, a famous sea fight also 

 took place here between the English and Dutch, in 

 which the latter lost seventy vessels. 



SOLECISM (from the Latin sol&cismus ; Greek 

 irti.eiKiffp.o;') ; the violation of the rules of a language 

 in speaking or writing, so called from the town of 

 Soli, in the eastern part of Cilicia, in Asia Minor, 

 the inhabitants of which spoke the Greek language 

 very badly. The Romans included even awkward 

 gestures on the stage under this name. The 

 ancients distinguished solecism from barbarism, and 

 designated by the latter the faulty use of single 

 words; by the former, every violation of syntax. 

 (Quinctilian, lib. i. ch. 5.) Modern grammarians 

 have retained the words, yet not with precisely the 

 same distinction; nor do they all agree in the dis- 

 tinction which they make. 



SOLEURE (in German, Solothurri); a canton 

 of Switzerland, bounded north by France and the 

 canton of Basle, east by Basle and Zurich, south 

 and west by Berne ; square miles, 275 ; population, 

 54,330 of German origin, 4310 Calvinists, the re- 

 mainder Catholics. The Jura mountains occupy a 

 part of the canton ; the rest of it is level and fertile. 

 The ground is partly arable, and partly adapted to 

 pasture ; and the cattle of this canton are considered 

 the best in Switzerland. Soleure was received 

 into the confederacy in 1481. The capital, of the 

 same name (4471 inhabitants), stands at the foot 

 of mount Jura, is divided by the Aar into two 

 parts, fortified with walls and bastions, and, though 

 irregular and built in a bad taste, has several good 

 edifices. It contains three churches, five convents, 

 an hospital, a lyceum with five professors, and a 

 town library of 8000 volumes. The environs are 

 pleasant and picturesque. The town is very ancient, 

 and several Roman antiquities are found here. See 

 Switzerland. 



SOLFAING signifies, originally, to exercise 

 the voice upon the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la 

 (solmization), adopted by Guido of Arezzo to de- 

 signate the notes. To these, at a later period, the 

 French added the syllable sz,in order to complete the 

 octave. It is--applied also to the singing and reading 

 of notes without text, in which the tones only are 

 named. Pieces without text, intended for this sort 



of exercise, are called solfeggi. Sometimes this 

 word is applied also to instrumental music (e. g. on 

 the piano) and then those pieces are meant, which 

 are merely intended to exertise the learner in read- 

 ing notes and hitting intervals. Solfaing, according 

 to the above-named syllables, had reference to the 



system of twenty-two diatonic tones (from g to~e), 

 divided into seven hexachords, established by Guido 

 of Arezzo. If the music went beyond the sixth, 

 the syllables were changed, in order to bring the 

 mi, fa, which designated the transition from the 

 third to the fourth degree of the hexachord, to its 

 proper place again, for which certain rules were 

 given. With the extension of the system of tones 

 by the enharmonic and chromatic genera, the diffi- 

 culty of singing after these syllables increased, on 

 which account the Germans and Dutch gave up 

 this way of designating them. See Ut, Re, Mi, 



SOLFATARA; a height near Naples (see Na- 

 ples') ; also a lake near Rome. See Campagna di 

 Roma. 



SOLFEGGI. See Solfaing. 



SOLICITOR, SOLICITOR GENERAL. See 

 the articles Advocates, and Advocate of the Crown. 



SOLID, in philosophy; a body whose parts are 

 so connected together as not to give way or slip 

 from each other upon the smallest impression ; in 

 which sense solid stands opposed to fluid. Geome- 

 tricians define a solid to be the third species ot 

 magnitude, or that which has three dimensions, viz. 

 length, breadth, and thickness or depth. A solid 

 may be conceived to be formed by the revolution, 

 or direct motion, of a superficies of any figure what- 

 ever, and is always terminated or contained under 

 one or more planes or surfaces, as a surface is under 

 one or more lines. 



SOLID ANGLE is that formed by three or more 

 plane angles meeting in a point ; like an angle of .a 

 die, or the point of a diamond well cut. Or, more 

 generally, it may be defined the inclination of 

 several plane surfaces, or one or more curved sur- 

 faces. 



SOLIDS. See Animal Matter. 



SOLILOQUY, OR MONOLOGUE, in the dra- 

 ma, or a work of dramatic character; the expres- 

 sion of the thoughts or feelings, in language not 

 addressed to a second person; it is therefore op- 

 posed to the dialogue. Dramatic writers have re- 

 course to soliloquy for the purpose of exhibiting 

 more distinctly the real character of the persons of 

 the action, their secret motives, and the manner in 

 which they were affected by important events, and 

 thus show the hidden springs of the action. It has 

 been objected that soliloquy is unnatural, and that, 

 in real life, persons alone never express their 

 feelings aloud, except under a strong excitement 

 and in a few words. Even if this criticism is just, 

 the monologue cannot be dispensed with in the 

 drama ; but good taste requires that it should be used 

 sparingly, and only when the same object cannot be 

 effected by means of the dialogue. 



SOLIMAN II. See Solyman II. 



SOLINGEN; a town in the Prussian province 

 of Juliers-Cleves-Berg, noted for its manufactures 

 of iron and steel ware, and silk stuffs. The popu- 

 lation of the town and parish exceeds 9000; twenty 

 miles north-east of Cologne. 



SOLIS, ANTONIO DE; a Spanish poet and his- 

 torian, born at Placenza, in Old Castile, in 1610. 

 His inclination for dramatic poetry procured him 

 the acquaintance of Calderon, for some of whose 



