SYMBOLICS SYMPTOMS. 



499 



tain the essential points of the belief of the various 

 sects. The Holy Scriptures remain the true foun- 

 dation of faith and the rule of the faithful ; but the 

 symbolic confessions are intended to give a short 

 sketch of the opinions of all the members of each 

 religious sect respecting the truths to be acknow- 

 ledged as the essential doctrines of the Bible, and 

 to prevent arbitrary interpretations of itT Symbols, 

 in this sense, are not put upon an equal footing 

 with the Bible ; but because, according to the 

 opinions of the sect, they contain the sense of the 

 Bible, every one must profess his belief in them, 

 who wishes to be acknowledged as a member of 

 the particular denomination. For the symbolic 

 books, see Creeds. 



SYMBOLICS ; the science which treats of the 

 symbols of the various religions, particularly of the 

 ancient religions, founded on the manifestations of 

 the Deity in the phenomena of nature, or whose 

 doctrines are given in symbols taken from natural 

 objects. See the articles Symbol, and Creutzer, 

 George Frederic. 



SYMPATHETIC CURES; pretended or real 

 cures, not by means of physic, but of the secret 

 powers of bodies, which do not necessarily come 

 into direct contact with the patient, but have a 

 mysterious influence on his condition. The opera- 

 tion is attributed to a certain sympathy of the suf- 

 ferer with other individuals, or with spirits, stars, 

 animals, plants, stones, &c. Full belief in the 

 power of such means of cure has a very great effect 

 in such diseases as are chiefly seated in the soul, or 

 in the nervous system, e. g. diseases of the mind, 

 epilepsies, &c. 



SYMPATHETIC INKS. See Ink. 



SYMPATHY (from ffv >, together, and *<>*,, I 

 suffer"), in physiology, is that quality of the animal 

 organization, by which, through the increased or 

 diminished activity of one organ, that of others is 

 also increased or diminished. The idea of an or- 

 ganized system the union of many parts in one 

 whole, in which all these parts correspond to each 

 other includes the idea of a mutual operation, of 

 which sympathy is a part. The medium between 

 the organ from which the action proceeds and that 

 to which it extends, has been sometimes supposed 

 to be the nervous system, sometimes the vascular 

 or the cellular system, or the juices; and it cannot 

 be denied, that, in some sympathetic phenomena 

 the nerves and the vessels appear to be the media ; 

 but there are objections to considering them as the 

 cause of sympathy in general, for experience teaches, 

 that sympathy takes place also between such organs 

 as have no discoverable connexion by nerves or ves- 

 sels. The phenomenon of sympathy appears even 

 in the healthy body ; e. g. a strong light, thrown 

 upon the eye, sometimes produces sneezing ; tick- 

 ling causes laughing; and some physiologists have 

 even called the change of voice at the age of pu- 

 berty, and the increased secretions of the liver, the 

 salivary glands, the pancreas, and the coats of the 

 stomach at the time of digestion, a sympathetic 

 action. But the effect of sympathy is much more 

 often observed in diseases. There is hardly one in 

 which some phenomena are not to be explained by 

 sympathy. Sympathy is further used to express 

 the influence of the state of one individual upon 

 another, e. g. the tickling in the throat, caused by 

 the cough of another person ; or the yawning pro- 

 duced by ueeing another yawn ; or the sorrow pro- 

 duced by witnessing his grief. The effects of ani- 

 mal magnetism are also ascribed to sympathy, and 



those which the sight of some animals is said to 

 have upon some men. 



SYMPHONY (from the Greek nu^tai'ia. \ in Ita- 

 lian, sinfonid). The word symphony, in the ancient 

 music, signifies the union of sounds which forms a 

 concert. When the whole concert was in unison, 

 it was called a symphony ; but when one half of the 

 performers were in the octave, or double octave, of 

 the other half, it was called antiphony. At present 

 the word symphony is often applied by the French 

 and English to overtures, and other instrumental 

 compositions, consisting of a variety of movements, 

 and designed for a full band. The introductory, 

 intermediary, and concluding instrumental passages 

 in vocal compositions are also called symphonies. 

 But the Germans use symphony as contradistin- 

 guished to overture, which, according to its true 

 meaning, ought to be dependent upon the piece to 

 which it forms the introduction. It should contain 

 the chief ideas of the piece, or at least indicate the 

 fundamental disposition of the whole, on account 

 of which, most composers write their overtures af- 

 ter they have finished the pieces for which they are 

 intended. The symphony, on the other hand, is 

 an independent piece, and is therefore capable of a 

 fuller developement of musical ideas. Formerly 

 the overture was used for the symphony. Sulzer, 

 in his General Theory of the Fine Arts, says, 

 " The difficulty of executing an overture well, and 

 the still greater difficulty of composing a good one. 

 has given rise to the easier form of the symphony, 

 which consisted originally of one or more fugue 

 pieces, alternating with dancing music of various 

 kinds, and was generally called partie. The over- 

 ture, indeed, maintained itself still at the beginning 

 of great pieces of church music and of operas, and 

 the parties were used only in chamber music ; but 

 people became tired of dancing music, unaccom- 

 panied by dancing, and were at last satisfied with 

 two allegros, alternating with a slow passage. 

 This species of composition was called symphony, 

 and used both in chamber music and before operas 

 and pieces of church music. The instruments ne- 

 cessary to a symphony are the violin, tenor violin, 

 and bass instruments a number of each : flutes, 

 horns, hautboys, may be added. Among the old 

 composers of symphonies, Benda, Bocherini, Dit- 

 tersdorf, Pleyl, &c., were famous, but are now 

 mostly forgotten. The greatest modern masters 

 in this kind of compc/sition are Haydn, Mozart, 

 Beethoven. 



SYMPLEGADES (^u^ir^yo^a, from ffv^rXni- 

 <ru, to dash together); small rocky islands at the 

 mouth of the Thracian Bosphorus, which were fabled 

 to strike together, and destroy ships, as they passed. 

 Juno conducted the Argonauts safely through them, 

 and Orpheus rendered them immovable by his lyre. 

 They were also called Cyanean (*onf, azure) 

 islands or rocks, from their blue appearance. 



SYMPOSIA ; the feasts of the ancient Greeks. 

 See Feasts of the Ancients. 



SYMPOSIARCH; he who provided all things 

 necessary for a o-i^w^af. See Feasts of the An- 

 cients, 



SYMPTOMS, in medicine; the phenomena of 

 diseases, from which we infer the existence and the 

 nature of the disease. Symptoms have their seat in 

 the functions which are affected by the disease so 

 as to be raised above their usual activity, or de- 

 pressed below it, or even to become changed in the 

 nature of their action. The organs themselves are 

 often changed in their appearance, structure, size 

 2 i 2 



