S E D 



S E D 



SEDANG, in Geography, a town on the N.W. coall of 

 theiflandof Borneo. N. lat. 2° 15'. E. long. 1 10° 48'. 



SEDAREE, a town of Perfian Armenia; 30 miles 

 S.E. of Erivan. 



SEDASHYGUR, a town of Hindoottan, in Canara, 

 on the coaft ; 6 rniles N.W. of Carwar. 



SEDASIER, a town of Hindooftan, in the country of 

 Coorga, where a battle was fought in 1799, between the 

 troops of Tippoo Sultan, and the Britifh under general 

 Stuart, in which the former were defeated ; 7 miles from 

 Periapatam. 



SEDATIVE, in Medicine, iTomfedare, toJUU, ox allay, 

 a term which was ufed by the older writers, nearly in the 

 fame acceptation with anodyne ; namely, to denote fuch me- 

 dicines as were calculated to alTuage pain. But among the 

 moderns it has been employed in another fenfe, and Hands in 

 oppofition to Jlitnulant. In the modern pathology, all the 

 aftions of the animal frame areafcribed to the agency of the 

 nervous power ; and whatever increafes or excites that power, 

 or its aftions, is thence called -nftimulant ; and thofe agents, 

 on the contrary, which diminifh or reft rain that power, or its 

 aftions, are therefore denominated yJ^^/j/rocj. Of the former 

 clafs, wine, alcohol, camphor, xther, aromatic fubftances, 

 &c. may be enumerated as examples ; of the latter, tobacco, 

 digitalis, fugar of lead, opium, &c. In the fchool of 

 Brown, however, where the word flimulant is in conilant 

 ufe, the exiftence of a direft fedative is abfolutely denied ; 

 for the Brunonian hypothefis maintains, " that life is the re- 

 fult of the aftion of ftimulants on the principle of excita- 

 bility, and, confequently, that every thing which afts mull 

 be ftimulant." (See Excitability.) It farther mamtains, 

 that a fedative aftion is not real, but apparent ; or rather, 

 is not direft, but indireft ; that is, it is the refult of the 

 previous itimulation ; and therefore, that an aftual fedative 

 \i a non-entity. But this argument, like many others of the 

 Brunonian fchool, is an obvious petitio principii in logic : it is 

 founded upon two unproved propofitions ; tirlt, that life is 

 folely the refult of excitement ; and, fecondly, that a pre- 

 vious excitement occurs, where it is not cognizable, as in 

 the cafe of digitalis, andthe fuperacctate of lead, and fome 

 other narcotics, which appear to influence direftly the aftion 

 of the heart and arteries, and to deprefs the whole nervous 

 povrer. The ufe offedntives for medicinal purpofes, is prin- 

 cipally confined to the regulation of the arterial fyllem, as 

 III cafes of hemorrhage, efpccially from the lungs, in dif- 

 eafes of the heart, Sec. 



SEDATIVUM Sal. See Sedative Salt. 

 SEDAU, in Geography. See Sevda. 

 SEDBERGH, a market-town in the well divifion 

 of the wapentake of Staincliffe and Ewcrofs, Well 

 Riding and county of York, England, is lituated in 

 the parirti of Sedbergh, at the diftance of 27 miles N.W. 

 by N. from Settle, and 27 miles N.W. by N. from London. 

 This place, which, according to the late population re- 

 turns, contained 344 houfes and 1805 inhabitants, is chiefly 

 indebted for its fupport to the manufafture of iron articles. 

 The market is held on Wednefday, weekly ; and there 

 are fairs annually on the 20th of March, and the 29th of 

 Oftober. Here is a free fchool, but neither it nor the 

 church is in any way remarkable. Beauties of England 

 and Wales, vol. xvi. by John Bigland, 8vo. 1813. 



SEDE, a lake of Egypt, feparated from the Mediter- 

 ranean by a neck of land, which extends from Aboukir to 

 within a mile or two of Alexandria. It communicates with 

 the fea by a narrow opening, and wefterly the Britifli army 

 epened a channel to form a communication with lake 



Mareotis : it is alfo called the " lake of Aboukir." — Alfo, 

 a lake of Egypt, producing natron ; 55 miles N.W. of 

 Cairo. 



SEDE ANA, a town of Italy, in Friuli ; 10 miles 

 W.S.W. of Udina. 



SEDEFE', a town of Egypt, on the left bank of the 

 Nile ; 7 miles S. of Abutige. 



SE DEFENDENDO, in Law, a plea for him who 

 is charged with the death of another ; alleging, that he 

 was forced to do what he did in his own defence, the 

 other fo aflaulting him, that had he not done as he did, he 

 mull have been in danger of his own life. See SEht-defence, 

 Homicide, and Manslaughter. 



SEDELLA, in Geography, a town of Spain, in the 

 provmcc of Grenada; 12 miles N. of Velez Malaga. 



SEDEM Attolleks, in Anatomy, a name given by 

 Vefalius and others to the mufcle, now more generally 

 known by the name of levator ani. 



SEDENTARIUM Os, a name given by fome ana- 

 tomical writers to the protuberance of the os coxendicis, 

 on which the whole weight of the body refts in fitting. 



SEDER OLAM, in Philology, a Hebrew term, literally 

 fignifying, order nf the world ; being the title of two chro- 

 nicles in that language. 



They are both very Ihort, though the one more fo than 

 the other ; for which reafon the one is called feder ohm 

 rabba, that is, the great feder olam ; and the other, feder 

 olam zuta, i. e. little feder olam. 



SnDER Olam, the Great, commences at the creation of 

 the world, and comes down as low as the war of the 

 pfeudo-meffiah Barchochebas, under Adrian, fifty -two years 

 after the dellruftion of the temple of Jerulalem ; and of 

 confequence to the hundred and twenty-fecond year of 

 Chrift. It is almoft all taken from the Scripture, except- 

 ing the end. It is tlie work of R. Jofa, fon of Hhelpeta 

 of Tfippora, who lived in the fecond century, about the 

 year 130, and was mailer of the famous R. Juda Hakka- 

 dofch, the compiler of the Mifchna. 



Seder Olam, the Leffer, is an abridgment of the former, 

 brought down as far as Mar Sutra, who lived 450 years 

 after the dellruftion of the temple, or 522 years after Chrift. 

 F. Morin, continually bent upon diminifliing the antiquity 

 of the principal books of the Jews, endeavours to prove 

 this to have been written about the year of Chrill 1124, 

 as indeed it is expreifed in the beginning ; but R. Dav. 

 Gantz has overthrown this opinion in his Tfemahh David, 

 and fliewn that the date in the beginning is an interpo- 

 lation. 



Thefe two chronicles were firll printed at Mantua in 

 1514, 4to. ; again at Bafil, by Frobcnius, in 1580, 8vo.; 

 at Venice, in 1545, 410. ; and at Paris, with a Latin ver- 

 fion of Genebrard, in i2mo. They have been Cnce re- m 

 printed at Amllerdam, in 17 11. I 



SEDE RON, in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of the Drome, and chief place of a canton, in 

 the diftrift of Nyons. The place contains 614, and the 

 canton 7334 inhabitants, on a territory of 375 kiliometres, 

 in 18 communes. 



SEDFE', a town of Egypt, on the left bank of the 

 Nile ; 3 miles S. of Bata. 



SEDGE Grasses, in Agriculture, a title given to vari- 

 ous forts of grafles of the poor hard carnation kind, which II 

 are very hardy in their nature, and prevail much in raoft ^ 

 crude heavy land. They are fcarcely ever touched by live- 

 ftock, being what may be called the fag end of herbage. 

 See Carex and Weeds. 



9 SEDGE- 



