364 



INDEX. 



with child usually seen high-shouldered, i. 4-30. In women, 

 narrower than in men, 433. 



Showers, dreadful shower of hail in 1510, its description, i. 

 319. Of stones, fishes, and ivy-berries, raised into the air 

 by tempests in one country, and falling at a distance like 

 rain, to astonish another, 331. 



Shrew-mouse described, iii. 183. 



Siberia, enormous tusks found lodged in the sandy banks of 

 the rivers in this waste country, iii. 356. 



Sighs, in what manner produced ; when invigorated produce 

 sobbing, i. 420. 



Sight, of old men, indistinct for bodies close to them, but 

 more precise for objects at a distance, and why, ii. 30. Of 

 birds exceeds that of other animals ; a kite, from an imper- 

 ceptible height, sees its prey, and darts on it with unerring 

 aim, iv. 8. Of birds that prey by day, astonishingly quick, 

 and in such as ravage by night, so fitted as to discern ob- 

 jects with precision, 64. 



Signs of death, uncertainty of them ought to make every one 

 cautious of a premature interment, ii. 71. 



Silk manufactures established in Europe, in the beginning 

 of the twelfth century, by Roger of Sicily, vi. 83. 



Silks, brought to Jamaica, and there exposed to the air, rot 

 while they preserve their colour, but kept from air retain 

 their strength and gloss, i. 268. Anciently so scarce in 

 Rome as to be sold for their weight in gold ; considered such 

 a luxurious refinement in dress, that infamy was attached 

 to wearing stuffs in which it made but half the composition, 

 vi. 82. 



Silk-worm, its real history unknown among the Romans to the 

 time of Justinian, supposed only brought into Europe in 

 the twelfth century ; two methods of breeding them ; Pau- 

 sanias's description of this worm ; changes of its skin in 

 three weeks or a month ; gummy fluid forming the threads ; 

 preparations made before spinning the web ; the cone or 

 ball of silk described ; efforts to burst the cone ; free from 

 confinement it neither flies nor eats, the male seeks the fe- 

 male, impregnates her in an uninterrupted union of four 

 days, then dies upon separation, she survives till she has 

 laid her eggs, which are hatched into worms the ensuing 

 spring ; few of these animals suffered to come to a state of 

 maturity, and why ; the most serviceable of all such crea- 

 tures, vi. 83. 

 Silurus, the sheat-fish, of the prickly-finned abdominal kind, 



its description, v. 122. 

 Sinews of the rein-deer, the strongest kind of sewing thread, 



ii.361. 

 Single, name of the tail of the stag, ii. 317. 



