SEN 



caravan comes now from Sudan (Nigritia) to Sennaar, nor 

 from AbyfTmia or Cairo. The violence of the Arabs, and 

 the faithlefinefs of the government of Sennaar, have Ihut 

 them up on every fide but that of Jidda, whither they go 

 once a-yearby Suakem. ,., , , ,, ,, _ 



The wakea of Sennaar, by which they fell gold, civet, 

 fcentedoils, &c. confifts of lo drachms ; lO of thefe wakeas 

 make a rotol. This wakea at Sennaar is accounted the 

 fame as that of Mafuah and Cairo. It is equal to 7 

 drachms 57 grains troy weight. 



I Rotol = 10 Wakeas. 

 I Wakea = 10 Drachms. 



But there is another wakea ufed by the merchants called 

 the Atareys. 



I Rotol = 1 2 Wakeas. 



I Wakea = 1 2 Drachms. 



But this is only ufed for coarfe goods. There is but one 

 Jong meafure in Sennaar, called the Draa, whicli is the 

 peek, or cubit, and is meafured from the centre of the 

 elbow-joint to the point of the middle finger. This is pro- 

 bably the ancient cubit of Egypt, and of the holy fcripture. 

 Brace's Travels, vol. iv. 



Sennaar, a city of Africa, and capital of the kingdom 

 of the fame name, fituated on the W. fide of the Nile, and 

 clofe upon its banks. The ground on which it itaods rifes 

 juft enough to prevent the river from entering the town, 

 even in the height of the inundation, when it comes to be 

 even with the itreet. Poncet fays, that when he was at this 

 city, his companion, father Brevedent, a Jefuit, an able 

 mathematician, on the 21ft of March 1699, determined the 

 latitude of Sennaar to be 13° 4' N. the difference there- 

 fore will be about half a degree. The reader however may 

 implicitly rely upon the fituation given it by Poncet, being 

 the mean refult of above fifty obfervations, made both night 

 and day, on the moll favourable occafions, by a quadrant 

 of three feet radius, and telefcopes of two, and fometimes 

 of three feet focal length, both refleftors and refrattors 

 made by the beft matters. 



The town of Sennaar is very populous, there being in it 

 many good houfes after the falhion of the country. Poncet 

 fays, in his time they were all of one itory high ; but now 

 the great officers have all houfes of two. They have para- 

 pet roofs, which is a fingular conftruftion ; tor in other 

 places, within the rains, the roofs are all conical. The 

 houfes are all built of clay, with very little llraw mixed 

 with it, which fuf&ciently (liews the rains here muil be lels 

 violent than to the fouthward, probably from the diftance 

 of the mountains. However, when PoHcet was there, a week 

 of conftant rain happened, and on the 30th of July the 

 Nile increafed violently, after loud thunder, and a great 

 darknefs to the fouth. The whole ftream was covered with 

 wrecks of houfes, canes, wooden bowls, and platters, living 

 camels and cattle, and feveral dead ones pafled Sennaar, 

 hurried along by the current with great velocity. A hvsena, 

 endeavouring to crols before the town, was furrounded and 

 killed by the inhabitants. The water got into the houfes 

 that ftand upon its banks, and, by rifing feveral feet hitjh, 

 the walls melted, being clay, which occafioned feveral of 

 them to fall. It feemed, by the floating wreck of houfes 

 that appeared in the flream, to have deftroyed a great many 

 villages to the fouthward towards Fazuclo. 



It will not be thought furprifing, confidering the latitude 

 of Sennaar, that the heats fhould be excciTive. The ther- 

 mometer rifes in the (hade to 1 19°. Neverthelefs, from 70-' 

 to 78° Fahrenheit's thermometer, the air is cool ; from 79° 



SEN 



to 92° temperate ; at 92° it begins to be warm. N. lat, 1 3° 

 34' 36". E. long. 33° 30' 30". For further particulars re- 

 lating to this city fee the preceding article. 



SENNE, a river of France, which enters the Demer, a 

 little below Mal'nes. 



SENNECEY, Grand. See Senecey. 

 SENNERAT, an ifland near the W. coaft of Weft 

 Greenland. N. lat. 61^ 28'. W. long. 47° 35'. 



SENNERTUS, Daniel, in Biography, an able and 

 learned phyfician, was born at Brellaw, i; Silefia, on the 

 25th of November, 1572, where his father was a flioe- 

 maker, and died in his childhood. He received his early 

 education in his native city, under the direftion of his mo- 

 ther, and was then fent to the univerfity of Wittemberg, in 

 the year 1593, where he exhibited fuch proofs of acuteneCe 

 of mind and folidity of judgment, that every opportunity 

 was afl"orded him, by vifiting the other celebrated univerfities 

 of Girmany, efpecially thofe of Leipfic, Jena, Francfort 

 on tile Oder, and Berlin, of cultivating his talents. He 

 returned to AVittemberg in 1601, and received the degree of 

 doftor in September of that year, and in the fame month of 

 the foUowinij year was appointed to a profeflbrfhip of medi- 

 cine. In this office his eloquence and knowledge were cal- 

 culated to raife him to a high reputation, and his luminous 

 method of teaching brought crowds of pupils to his lec- 

 tures. He alfo endeavoured, by means of various publi- 

 cations with which he enriched the profeffion among his con- 

 temporaries, to affill them in cultivating the Icience of medi- 

 cine. By thefe means his reputation became fo extenfive, 

 that patients came to him from all parts of the world, and 

 he. rcfufcd his affiilance to nobody. He took what was 

 offered for his trouble, but demanded nothing, and even re- 

 turned to the poor what they gave him. The plague pre- 

 vailed fevcn times at Wittemberg, while he was profeflbr 

 there ; but he never retired, nor was ever known to refufc 

 to vifit tiie pooreft fick. George I., eledor of Saxony, 

 whom he had cured of a dangerous illnefs in 1626, appointed 

 him one of his phyficians in ordinary ; but with the permif- 

 fion to remain at Wittemberg, that the world might continue 

 to derive the benefit of his public inftru£tions. He was 

 three times married, and had feven children by his firll wife, 

 three of whom furvived him. He was at length carried off 

 by an attack of the plague, which was raging in Wittem- 

 berg, in the month of July 1637, in the fixty-fifth year of 

 his age. 



Sennertus was a voluminous writer, and has been charac- 

 terized, by fome critics, as a mere compiler from the works 

 of the ancients. It is true that his writines contain an epi- 

 tome, but, it muft be added, a mod comprehenfive, clear, and 

 judicious epitome, of the learning of the Greeks and Ara- 

 bians, which renders them, even at this day, of confiderable 

 value as books of reference, and which are highly creditable, 

 confidering the age in which they were compofed, to his 

 learning and difcrimination. The freedom, indeed, with 

 which he impugned many of the doftrincs of the ancients, 

 called up many opponents, and led him into much contro- 

 verfy. He was the firfl to introduce the ftudy of chemiftry 

 into the univerfity of Wittemberg, and demj)nllrated his 

 freedom from the (hackles of ancient opinion, by combining 

 much of the chemical with the Galenical doftrines ; an union 

 which the mere advocates of antiquity (Irongly deprecated, 

 as well as the introduftion of chemical medicines. His 

 treatife " De Confentu et Difleufu Galenicorum et Peripa- 

 teticorumcum Chymicis," 1619, may be faid to have intro- 

 duced a new feft into Germany by this union. His various 

 works have been collefted together, and publi(hed at dif- 

 ferent times and places, under the title of « Opera omnia ;" 



but 



