S H O 



S H O 



SHORTFORD, q. d. fore-clofe, an ancient cuttom in 

 the city of Exeter, when the lord of the fee cannot be an- 

 fwered rent due to him out of his tenement, and no dillrefs 

 can be levied for the fame. The lord is then to come to the 

 tenement, and there take a ftone, ©r fome other dead thing-, 

 off the tenement, and bring it before the mayor and bailiff, 

 and thus he muff do ieven quarter-days fucceflively, and if on 

 the feventh quarter-day the lord is not fatisfied his rent and 

 arrears, then the tenement {hall be adjudged to the lord to 

 hold the fame a year and a day ; and forthwith proclamation 

 is to be made in the court, that if any man claims any title 

 to the faid tenement, he muff appear within the year and day 

 next following, and fatisfy the lord of the faid rent and 

 arrears : but if no appearance be made, and the rent not 

 paid, the lord comes again to the court, and prays that, ac- 

 cording to the cuffom, the faid tenement be adjudged to him 

 in his demefne as of fee, which is done accordingly, fo that 

 the lord hath from tlieuceforth the faid tenement, with the 

 appurtenances, to him and his heirs. 



SHORT-JOINTED, in the Manege. A horfe is faid 

 to be ffiort -jointed, that has a ftiort pattern ; when tills jonit, 

 or the paffern, is too ffiort, the horfe is fubjeft to have his 

 fore-legs from the knee to the cornet all in a ffraight line. 

 Comm.only fhort-jointeJ horfes do not manege fo well as the 

 long-jointed ; but out of the manege, the fhort-jointed are 

 the beff for labour or fatigue, efpecially thofe of the farm 

 breed. 



SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS, Myopia, a defeft in the 

 conformation of the eye, wherein the cryffalline, &c. being 

 too convex, the rays reflefted from different objefts are re- 

 frafted too much, and "made to converge too faff, fo as to 

 unite before they reach the retina, by which means vifion is 

 rendered dim and confufed. See Myops. 



A learned author thinks it probable, that out of fo great 

 a number of fhort-fighted perfons as are daily to be met with, 

 few are born fo, for it generally grows upon young people 

 at the age of twenty or twenty-five, and therefore might 

 poffibly be prevented by uling their eyes, while young, to 

 all forts of conformations, that is, by often looking through 

 glaffes of all forts of figures, and by reading, writing, or 

 working with fpeftacles of feveral degrees of convexity ; 

 for whatever be the powers by which the eye conforms itfelf 

 to diffinft vifion, they may poffibly grow weak, or lofe their 

 extent one way or other, for want of variety of exercife. 

 It feems an opinion without foundation, to think that fuch 

 an exercife of the eyes can aiiywife injure them, provided 

 due care be taken to avoid looking at objefts that are too 

 bright. 



Short-fightednefs may come by accident ; of this we have 

 a remarkable inffance, mentioned by Dr. Briggs in his Oph- 

 thalmographia, of a perfon upwards of feventy years old, 

 who had ufed fpeftacles fur ten years, and yet by catching 

 cold, he fuddenly became fo ffiort-fighted, that he could not 

 dillinguifh objefts three feet off', and after the cold and de- 

 fluxion were cured, he continued to read the fmallett print 

 without fpeftacles for many years. 



Dr. Smith mentions a young gentleman, who became 

 Jhort -lighted immediately after coming out of a cold bath, 

 in which he did not totally immerfe hinifelf, and has ever fince 

 ufed a concave glafs for many years. 



It is commonly thought that Ihort-fightednefs wears off in 

 old age, on account of the eye becoming flatter : but the 

 learned doftor queftions whether this be matter of faft, or 

 hypothefis only. 



It is remarkable, that fhort-fighted perfons commonly 

 write a fmall hand, and love a fmall print, becaufe they can 

 fee more of it at a view. That it is cuitomary with them 

 II 



not to look at the perfon they converfe with, becaufe they 

 cannot well fee the motion of his eyes and features, and are 

 therefore attentive to his words only. That they fee more 

 diffinftly, and fomewhat farther oft, by a ffrong light than 

 by a weak one ; becaufe a itrong light caufes a contraftion 

 of the pupil, and confequently of the pencils, both here and 

 at the retina, which leffens their mixture, and confequently 

 the apparent coiifufion ; and, therefore, to fee more diffinftly, 

 they almoft clofe their eye-lids, for which reafon they were 

 anciently called myopes. Smith's Optica, vol. ii. Rem. p. lo. 

 &c. 



Dr. Jurin obferves, that perfons who are much and long 

 accuftomed to view objefts at fmall diftances, as ftudentsin 

 general, watch-makers, gravers, painters in miniature, &c. 

 fee better at fmall diftances, and not fo well at great diffances, 

 as the relt of mankind. The reafon is, that in the eye, as 

 well as in other parts, the mulcles, by conttant exercife, are 

 enabled to contraft themfelves with more ftrength, and by 

 difufe are brought to Icfs llrength. Hence, in the perfons 

 before-mentioned, the greater mufcular ring of the uvea con- 

 trafts more eafily and ffrongly, and the cornea more readily 

 obeys the contraftion of the ring, whence they fee better at 

 fmall diftances. And the cornea, by being thus often and 

 long bent into a greater convexity, does by degrees lofe fome- 

 thing nf its elafticity, fo as not to return to its natural elafti- 

 city, when the miilcular ring ceafes to aft upon it. This is 

 one caufe of their not feeing fo well at great diffances : alfo 

 the ligamentum ciliare, being feldom employed to leffen the 

 convexity of the capfula, does by degrees become Icfs capa- 

 ble of performing that office : and the capfula being feldom 

 drawn out, and put into tenfion, muff lole fomething of its 

 diftenfile quality, fo as lels eafily to comply with the aftion 

 of the ligament. And this is another caufe of their not feeing 

 fo well at great diftances. Jurin, Efiay on dift. and indift. 

 Vifion, 



The ordinary remedy for ftiort- fightednefs is a concave 

 lens, held betore the eye, which making the rays diverge, or 

 at leaft diminifhing much of their convergency, makes 

 amends for the too great convexity of the cryftalline. 



Dr. Hook fuggells another remedy. Finding that many 

 fhort-fighted perlons are but little helped by concaves, he 

 recommends a convex glafs, placed between the objeft and 

 the eye, by means of which the objeft may be made to appear 

 at any diftance from the eye : and confequently, all objefts 

 may be thereby made to appear at any diftance from the eye, 

 fo that the ffiort-fighted eye ftiall contemplate the pifture of 

 the objeft in the fame manner as if the objeft itfelf were in 

 the place. It is true, the image will appear inverted, but 

 we have expedients to remedy this too ; for, in reading, 

 there needs nothing but to hold the book upfide down. 

 To write, the beff way, in this cafe, will be, for the perfon 

 to learn to do it upfide down. For dilfaiit objefts,. the 

 doftor afferts, from his own experience, that with a httle 

 praftice in contemplating inverted objefts, one gets as good 

 an idea of them as if feen in their natural pofture. 



SHOSTACK, in Commerce, a money of account in 

 Poland and Hungary. In Hungary, a ftioftack is 2 im- 

 perial grofchen, or 6 creutzers ; an imperial grofche, or 

 kayfer grofche, is 2 polturats, 3 creutzers, or 12 pfenings ; 

 a polturat is 6 pfenings, and a creutzer 4 pfenings. A 

 Hungarian grofche is worth 2 creutzers in Upper Hungary, 

 but 2| creutzers in Lower Hunga^ry : thus, 5 grofchen in 

 Upper Hungary, or 6 grofchen in Lower Hungary, 

 =: I kayfer grofche. A rixdollar of account is worth 1 5 

 imperial florin, i|. Hungarian florin, 15 ftioftackp, 30 im- 

 perial grofchen, or 90 creutzers. An imperial florin is 10 

 flioftacks, or 20 imperial grofchen, and a Hungarian florin, 



8 J fttof- 



