SPITHEAD 



5503 



SPLICING 



'that is, the amount of air which can be ex- 

 pelled after a deep breath is taken. A spirome- 

 ter in common use consists of two cylinders, 

 the upper one made so as to move freely up 

 and down when placed inverted within the 

 other. To the upper cylinder are fastened a 

 tube and an air cock, and the lower is filled 

 with water. When the person under examina- 

 tion breathes into the tube the air is collected 

 in the inverted cylinder and it rises in the 

 water, the number of inches it moves being 

 recorded on a graduated scale. From this rec- 

 ord is computed the number of cubic inches of 

 air expelled. 



SPITHEAD, spit'hed, a roadstead, fourteen 

 miles long and four miles wide, separating the 

 Isle of Wight from the southern coast of Eng- 

 land. It is the favorite anchorage of the Brit- 

 ish navy, and received its name from the Spit, 

 a sandbank stretching south from the Hamp- 

 shire shore for three miles. The sailors often 

 call it "the King's bedchamber" because of the 

 splendid protection from winds and the strong 

 fortifications of circular towers, which were 

 built in 1864. 



SPITZ, or POMERANIAN, pom er a' ni an, 

 DOG, a small dog averaging about eight 

 pounds in weight and fourteen inches in height, 

 having a foxlike face and sharp-pointed muzzle. 

 The ears are erect, and the bushy tail is usually 

 carried over the back. Its coat, beautifully soft 

 and silky, may range in color from black 

 through gray and red-brown to white ; the pure, 

 or white, dogs, the latter with a black-tipped 

 nose, are considered the most desirable. In 

 its native land, Pomerania in Prussia, the Spitz 

 is used to tend sheep, but in America its only 

 value is as a pet or fancy breed. 



SPITZBERGEN, spits' ber gen, an Arctic 

 archipelago to which no country lays definite 

 claim, consists of five large islands West Spitz- 

 bergen, or New Friesland, North East Land, 

 Edge Island, Barents Island, Prince Charles 

 Foreland the Wiche Islands and many smaller 

 islands. The geological formation is chiefly 

 pre-Devonian granite, gneiss and schists. The 

 ice- and snow-covered islands have no perma- 

 nent inhabitants, their chief importance being 

 their use as a starting point for polar explora- 

 tion. It was from these islands that Andree 

 started in 1897 on his attempted voyage to the 

 North Pole in a great balloon (see POLAR EX- 

 PLORATION). 



Spitzbergen was discovered in 1596 by the 

 expedition under Barents and Heemskerk, the 

 Dutch navigators. It is the most northerly 



land in the world on which people can live, but 

 is not accessible, for it is not in the lines of 

 travel and there would be absolutely no profit 

 in attempts to establish routes and plant colo- 

 nies. However, the islands have a slightly 

 higher winter temperature than that at Petro- 

 grad, the lowest temperatures rarely reaching 

 30. Winter sets in early in September, and 

 for four months the sun is continuously below 

 the horizon, although for three or four hours of 

 each twenty-four the darkness is relieved by 

 faint twilight. 



Consult Conway's Early Voyages to Spitsber- 

 gen; Greely's Handbook of Polar Discovery. 



SPLEEN, the largest gland of the body not 

 having a discharging tube. It lies below the 

 diaphragm, to the left and a little back from 

 the stomach (see illustration, page 7). In 

 adults the spleen is about five inches long and 

 three or four inches wide and weighs about 

 seven ounces; it is soft and spongy, crumbles 

 easily, and is a deep violet-red in color. The 

 organ is a mass of cellular tissue covered by a 

 fold of serous membrane from the peritoneum, 

 or membrane that lines the abdominal cavity, 

 which passes over it from the diaphragm, hold- 

 ing it in place. 



The function of the spleen is to help in the 

 manufacture of blood, but in just what manner 

 has not yet been determined. It can be re- 

 moved completely without causing death, the 

 other blood-manufacturing organs apparently 

 substituting. It stores up nutritive material, 

 forms both red and white corpuscles and is also 

 supposed to change unknown matter into nitro- 

 gen. This organ is always enlarged during 

 typhoid fever, possibly because it has to manu- 

 facture certain blood cells which fight and de- 

 stroy disease germs, and is thus compelled to 

 put forth additional effort. S.C.B. 



SPLICING, splys'ing, the process of joining 

 two rope ends without tying, by interweaving 

 the loosened strands, which in turn are com- 

 posed of yarns or fibers twisted together. 



The three kinds of splices in general use are 

 known as the short, long and eye splices. The 

 short splice (Fig. 2) is made by placing the 

 rope ends together in such a manner that each 

 strand lies between corresponding strands in 

 the second piece. The weaving of the first two 

 is easy, but the placing of the third is more 

 difficult; the rule is to "go over one and then 

 under one." A long splice is not a long-woven 

 short splice, but is made by raveling the strands 

 back two or more feet, and then, after placing 

 the ends together as in the short splice, con- 



