STALL STANDARD. 



375 



pores or fissures in the roofs of those caverns which 

 are frequent in limestone. The water, having per- 

 colated through the roofs, remains suspended in 

 drops. Evaporation commences at the exterior of 

 the drop, and the calcareous particles are deposited 

 on the roof of the cavern in the form of a little 

 ring, which extends by degrees till a small tube is 

 produced. The bore of this tube is, in most cases, 

 diminished by successive deposits, till it becomes 

 entirely closed ; and the stalactite then increases by 

 concentric layers applied to the exterior. Thus 

 cylinders or cones are produced, and sometimes so 

 enlarged that they unite with each other. While 

 the stalactite is forming, a part of the water drops 

 from it on the floor of the cavern, or trickles down 

 the sides, and thus produces those calcareous con- 

 cretions called stalagmites. When large, they are 

 called alabaster. On the floor, they often form 

 large masses, sometimes rising till they meet the 

 stalactites pendent from the roof, and extending in 

 all directions. A great variety of imitative forms 

 are produced ; hence a lively imagination will per- 

 ceive, in these caverns, representations of the most 

 diverse objects, especially by the light of a candle. 

 The colour of stalactites is seldom pure white ; it 

 more frequently presents shades of yellow, red, or 

 brown. Among the more remarkable foreign locali- 

 ties of stalactites are the grotto of Antiparos, in 

 the Archipelago ; Baumann's cave, in the Hartz ; 

 Pool's hole, in Derbyshire ; the caves of La Balme, 

 tn Savoy ; and of Auxelle, in Tranche Comte. 

 Fine specimens of alabaster are found in Spain, near 

 Grenada, &c., in Italy, Sicily and Sardinia. The 

 most beautiful alabaster employed by the ancients, 

 is supposed to have been found in Egypt, in moun- 

 tains west of the Red sea. 



STALL. See Prebend. 



STAMBOL. See Constantinople. 



STAMFORD ; a town of England, in Lincoln- 

 shire, situated on the banks of the river Welland, 

 eighty-nine miles north by west from London. It 

 is said to derive its name from the Saxon stean and 

 forde, there having been formerly a kind of cause- 

 way where the river Welland was forded. The 

 town is built in the form of a cross, the houses 

 being generally of freestone, covered with slate. It 

 contains six parish churches, and two or three meet- 

 ing-houses. The other public buildings are, a town- 

 hall, a theatre, and an assembly room. Stamford 

 has several charitable establishments, the most opu- 

 lent of which is that founded in the reign of Richard 

 III., by William Brown. The trade of the place is 

 principally in malt, coal, timber, and freestone. 

 Population in 1831, 5837. 



STAMMERING. See Stuttering. 



STAMPED PAPER, for the purpose of raising 

 a tax, is a Dutch invention. De Basville, or Ba- 

 ville, in his Memoires pour servir a VHistoire de 

 Languedoc, affirms that stamped paper was intro- 

 duced as early as the year 537, by the emperor Jus.- 

 tinian ; but Beckmann, in his History of Inventions, 

 shows this opinion to be erroneous. The states of 

 the United Provinces promised a reward for the in- 

 vention of a new tax, which would press lightly on 

 the subjects, and yet yield much to the government; 

 and stamped paper was proposed. It was legally 

 introduced, August 13, 1624, by the states, and 

 was gradually imitated by other governments. In 

 the year ending with 5th January, 1838, the stamps 

 produced to the British government 6,432,153. 



STANDARD, oa FLAG; originally, a signal, 

 erected on a pole, spear or lance. Such signals 



were used for different purposes, and were known 

 among the Hebrews as early as the time of Moses, 

 and adorned with emblems. Ephraim carried a 

 steer ; Benjamin a wolf, c. We find something 

 similar among the Greeks ; the Athenians had an 

 owl, the Thebans a sphinx, on their standards, by 

 the raising or lowering of which they gave the sig- 

 nal for attack or retreat. The standard of Romulus 

 was a bundle of hay tied on a pole. In place of 

 this, a hand, and, finally, an eagle, were substituted. 

 The real standards, came first into use under the 

 Roman emperors, who re- 

 tained the eagle : they were 

 also ornamented with dra- 

 gons and silver balls. The 

 standard of the cavalry con- 

 sisted of a square piece of 

 purple cloth, decorated with 

 gold, on which the figure of 

 a dragon was afterwards re- 

 presented. The Germans 

 fastened a streamer to a 

 lance, which the duke carried 

 in front of the army. From 

 hand, the name which this 

 bore, comes our English 

 word banner (jbandum, bande- 

 rium,bandierd). Afterwards, 

 a large cloth was used, orna- 

 mented with emblems and 

 inscriptions. The imperial French armies, in imita- 

 tion of the Romans, had an eagle for an ensign, but 

 of a different shape from the Roman eagle. See 

 Eagle. 



STANDARD OF MONEY; the degree of the 

 purity or fineness of the metal contained in the 

 coins" of a particular country, and the quantity or 

 weight of such metal contained in these coins. We 

 have given a comparative view of the standard of 

 money, in different countries, in the table contained 

 in the article Coins, to which, and to the article 

 Circulating Medium, we refer the reader. The 

 alloy in coins is reckoned of no value : it is al- 

 lowed to save the trouble and expense of refining 

 the metals to the highest degree of purity, and to 

 render the coins harder, and, therefore, less liable 

 to be worn or rubbed. The standard is sometimes 

 arbitrarily changed by governments, as a means of 

 raising money, either by simply altering the denom- 

 ination of the coins, without changing their weight 

 or purity, or by issuing coins of baser metal, or by 

 reducing the weight of the coin. But experience 

 has taught that such changes are not only frauds 

 upon the public creditor, and a source of confusion 

 and distress to the people at large, but that they 

 afford only a temporary relief to the public trea- 

 sury, at the expense of new embarrassments. The 

 present standard of the English coins has re- 

 mained unchanged since the conquest, except for a 

 period of sixteen years, from thirty-fourth of Henry 

 VIII. to second of Elizabeth. That of the gold 

 coins was changed in the eighteenth of Henry VIII. ; 

 previously to which the standard had been twenty- 

 three carats three and a half grains fine, and one 

 half grain alloy.* It was then fixed at twenty-two 

 carats fine and two carats alloy. The former was 

 called the old standard, the latter the new standard 

 or crown gold, because crowns were first coined of 



* The purity of gold is estimated by an Abyssinian weiirlit 

 called :ic<>-< (!>cavi), which i.-- subdivided iutofmir pHta, called 

 grants. Cold of the lughebt purity is gaid to be twenty-four 

 rarats fine. 



