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proved of by the French muficians, yet in Italy they difdain 

 to make ufe of it, as being the invention of a Frenchman. 

 Hawkins's Hift. of Mufic, vol. i. p. 435. 



The French are not yet agreed to whom they are obliged 

 for the (yWMe/t ; fome fay it was Nevers, fome Le Maire, 

 and other claimants are mentioned by Roufi'eau ; but not 

 bein^ quite fatisfied with its utility, we (hall bellow no 

 pains in verifying the claims of an iinperfed invention. 



Si ylaion, in Law, the conclufion of a plea to the aftion, 

 when the defendant demands judgment, if the plaintiff ought 

 to have his adlion, &c. 



SIABE', in Geography, a town of Perfia, in the province 

 of Segertan, or Seiftan. 



SIABISCH, 1 river of Ruflia, which runs into the Aba- 

 kan, near Bankalova, in the government of Kolyvan. 



SIAD Y, a town of Samogitia, feated on a lake ; 33 miles 

 N.N.W. of Miedniki. 



SIAGNE, a river of France, which runs into the Medi- 

 terranean, N. lat. 43° 31'. E. long. 7°. 



SIAGONAGRA, a name given by fonje medical writers 

 to the gout in the jaws. 



SIAKA, in Geography, a town of Japan, in the ifland of 

 Ximo ; 1 2 miles W. of Taifero. 



SI A- KOH, a mountain of Perfia, in the province of Irak ; 

 50 miles E.N.E. of Kom. 



SIAL, a fmall ifland near the coaft of Egypt, which 

 forms a harbour in the Red fea. N. lat. 24° 30'. E. long. 



35° 2'- 



SIALACOORY, a town of Hindooftan, in Cochin; 



30 miles N.E. of Cranganore. 



SIALISMUS, formed from o-iaXov, yi/zW, a word ufed 

 by the ancients to exprefs a difcharge of faliva, brought on 

 by the holding hot things in the mouth ; and by us for a 

 falivation by mercury. 



SIALO, in Geography, a town on the E. coaft of the 

 ifland of Sibu. N. lat. 9° 53'. E. long. 123° 30'. 



SIALOCHI, a term ufed by the ancients to exprefs fuch 

 perfons as had a plentiful difcharge of faliva, by whatever 

 means. Hippocrates ufes it for a perfon having a quinfey, 

 who difcharges a very large quantity of faliva. Others ex- 

 prefs by it perfons, whofe mouths naturally abound with 

 a bitter faliva ; and others, fuch perfons as, from having 

 a very large tongue, fpit into people's faces while talking 

 with them. 



SIALAGOGUES, in Medicine, irora c-mXoc, /a/iva, and 

 ayx; I excite, comprehend all fuch medicines as increafe the 

 flow of faliva. 



The fubftances which operate upon the falivary glands, 

 fo as to excite them to pour out their fluid in increafed 

 quantities, are of two kinds ; namely, thofe which may be 

 called external, and which, when applied within the mouth, 

 ftimulate the excretories of faliva and mucus, opening there- 

 by their acrid quahties ; and thofe which are adminiltered 

 internally, and operate through the medium of the circu- 

 lation. 



It feems to be a falutary provifion of nature, that when 

 any acrid matter is applied to the fenfible parts of the tongue 

 and internal furface of the mouth, a quantity of faliva and 

 mucus fliould be poured out to wafli it off, or to defend thofe 

 parts from its irritating eff"eds. Whence, by the continued 

 application of acrid fubftances, a confiderable evacuation of 

 the veflels of thofe parts is produced. By emptying the 

 lalivary glands and raucous follicles, they produce an afflux 

 of fluids from all the neighbouring veflels to a confiderable 

 extent. Whence it will be readily underftood, that thefe 

 mafticatories may relieve rheumatic congeftions, not only in 

 the neighbouring parts, as in the cafe of tooth-ache, but alfo 



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congeftions or inflammatory difpofitions in any part of the 

 head, fupplied by the branches of the external carotid. 



Many fubftances are reforted to for this purpofe, and 

 chiefly the warm and acrid vegetables ; indeed every fub- 

 ftance that proves fliarp and heating to the tongue, or inter- 

 nal furface of the mouth, will anfwer the end. The angehca 

 is a mild and agreeable fialagogue ; the imperatoria more 

 acrid ; and the pyrethrum more acrid ftill, and therefore 

 more commonly employed. Other fubftances might be 

 enumerated, but it may be enough to add, that a bit of frelh 

 horfe-radifli root, held in the mouth, and chewed a little 

 there, is as effeftual as any. 



The only medicine which we poflefs, that is capable of 

 exciting a flow of faliva when taken internally, is mercury. 

 In its crude and fimple ftate of quickClver, however, it is 

 perfeflly inert, and exerts no influence whatever upon the 

 living body, until it is oxydated, or combined with other 

 materials. Its operation then, as Dr. CuUen has ably de- 

 monftrated, is not, as was formerly fuppofed, by any che- 

 mical aftion on the fluids of the body, by which they are 

 attenuated, and thus made to pafs off more readily through 

 the excretory dufts ; but by a general ftimulant effeft upon 

 the vafcular fyltem, and efpecially upon the various excre- 

 tories of it. When blood is drawn from a perfon under the 

 full influence of mercury, it exhibits no appearance of any 

 diminution of conGftence ; but, on the contrary, it is always 

 found in the fame condition as in inflammatory difeafes. 



It will not be necetiary to enter into detail in this place 

 refpefting the mode of adminiftering mercury as a fiala- 

 gogue, fince that has already been done under the head of 

 Lues Venerea, for which difeafe principally it is fo exhi- 

 bited. In this difeafe, indeed, as well as in difeafes of the 

 liver, in hydrocephalus, and fome other maladies, it is not 

 adminiftered with a view to the evacuation from the falivary 

 glands ; its operation as a fialagogue is rather looked upon 

 as the teft of its full influence on the conftitution, than as 

 the means of its remedial power. See Cullen, Materia 

 Medica, part ii. chap. 17. 



During the prevalence of a chemical theory, to which the 

 difcovery of the importance of oxygen in the animal economy 

 gave rife, and when it was fuppofed that the nitric acid had 

 been found to be a fubftitute for mercury in the cure of, 

 fyphilis, it was even maintained that this acid afted in a 

 fimilar manner upon the falivary gland?, and was, in faft, a 

 powerful fialagogue. Farther experience, however, while 

 it difproved the antivenereal powers of this acid, difproved 

 alfo its virtues as a fialagogue, except indeed it might influ- 

 ence the excretory dufts of the glands externally, that is by 

 its acrid qualities in the aft of being fwallowed. 



SIALUSSIEB, in Geography, a town of the Arabian 

 Irak, on the Euphrates ; 8 miles E. of Sura. 



SIAM, a country of Afia, the name of which is of un- 

 certain origin ; but probably derived from the Portuguefe, 

 in whofe orthography Siam and Siao are the fame ; fo that 

 Sian, or Siang, might be preferable, as Loubere has fug- 

 geited, to Siam ; and the Portuguefe writers in Latin call 

 the natives " Siones." The Siamefe ftyle themfelves " Tai," 

 or freemen, and their country " Meuang Tai," or the king- 

 dom of freemen. The Portuguefe might poffibly derive 

 the name Siam from intercourfe with the Peguefe. 

 " Shan," however, is the oriental term. Before the recent 

 extenfion and encroachments of the Birman empire, the rich 

 and flourifliing monarchy of Siam was regarded as the 

 chief ftate of exterior India ; but fome of its limits are not 

 now eafily afcertained. On the weft of the Malayan penin- 

 fula fome few poffeffions may remain to the fouth of Ta- 

 naferim ; and on the eaftem fide of that Cherfonefe, Ligor 



may 



