S L E 



S L E 



ts thofe of ftones and earthy matters, and in fome inftances 

 the produce of the land. Sledges alfo ferve the purpofe of 

 tranfportiiig ploughs and other heavy tools of agriculture 

 to the different fields and other places where they are to 

 be ufed or employed, being contrived exprefsly for fuch 

 ufes and intentions. They are a kind of tool, which are 

 made much ufe of in many of the northern diltrifts of the 

 kingdom, as well as in fome of the fouthern ones. 



In the county of Cornwall they employ a fort of fledge 

 or dray, on moll farms, for the carriage of their hay, corn, 

 faggot-wood, and many other matters. Their fledges 

 moitly confill of two Itrong lide-pieces of wood, fome- 

 what in the form of a common boat, only more fharply 

 turned upwards at the ends, which have five, fix, and fome- 

 limes feven crofs-bars mortifcd into each, being (hod below 

 with thick rough portions of ftrong timber, on which the 

 whole (lides upon the fiirface of the ground. 



In fome caies two, fmall, low wheels are attached, on 

 which the machine moves. Thefe fledges are drawn either 

 by horfes or oxen in the above diltrift, and are found to 

 be handy and convenient in various ways. 



Sledoe is a I'lrge fmith's hammer, to be ufed with both 

 hands: of this there are two forts, the up-hand Jledge, which 

 is ufed by under workmen, when the work is not of the 

 largelt fort ; it is ufed with both the hands before, and 

 they feldom raife it higher than their head. But the 

 other, which is called the alout-Jledge, and which is ufed 

 for battering or drawing out the largeft work, is held by 

 the handle with both hands, and fwung round over their 

 heads, at their arms end, to ftrike as hard a blow as they 

 can. 



Sledge, among Miners. See Digging. 



Sledges, in Rope-making, are frames of oak mortifed 

 together, and clamped with iron in different parts. They 

 are from three feet wide, and eight or twelve feet long, to 

 five feet wide and fifteen feet long. The two fides are the 

 length of the lledge, five by feven inches thick, and lied 

 in by oak bars at each end : near the front arc two uprights 

 five feet high, mortifed into the fides, and fupported by 

 two (lanting pieces from the upper end. A breall-board 

 nine inches wide, and from three to five inches thick, is 

 fattened with iron pins to the uprights, and contains holes 

 for the hooks to go through, on which the yarn is hung, 

 which being turned by men, is twifted into llrands, and 

 then clofed and finifhcd into rope. Thefe (ledges are 

 loaded to any degree the rope in making may require. 



Sledge IJland, in Geography, an ifland in the North 

 Pacific ocean, near the weft coalt of North America ; about 

 12 miles in circuit. This ifland is compofed of large loofe 

 ftones, covered with mofs and other vegetables, of which 

 there are twenty or thirty different fpecies, mollly in (lower. 

 Captain Cook faw neither fhrub nor tree, either upon the 

 ifland or continent. He obferved one fox, a few plover, and 

 other fmall birds, and alfo fome decayed huts conllruftcd 

 partly below the ground. A beaten patli was fecn from 

 one end of the ifland to the other, and thefe circumftances 

 indicated its having been lately vifited by fome people. A 

 (ledge alfo was found, which gave name to the ifland : this 

 was fuch as the RuiFians in Kamtfchatka ufed to convey 

 goods from one place to another, over the ice or fnow. It 

 was lo feet long, 20 inches broad ; it had a kind of rail- 

 work on each fide, and was (hod with bone. Its con- 

 ftruftion was admirable, its parts being neatly put together, 

 partly with wooden pms, but principally with thongs or 

 lalhings of whale-bone. N. lat. 64" 50'. W. long. 166° 3'. 



SLEDINGEN, a town of France, in the department 

 of the Scheld j 5 miles N. of Ghent. 



SLEEAN, in Rural Economy, provincially the finut in 

 corn. 



SLEEP, in Phyfwlogy, the more or lefs complete fuf- 

 penfion of the funftions of fenfation and volition, that is, 

 of the aftion of the five fenfes, of the brain, of the volun- 

 tary mufcles, and the voice, or the organs which connfft 

 us with the external world, to which animals, at leaft thofe 

 of the clalfes mammalia and birds, are fubjeft at certain 

 more or lefs regular intervals, for the purpofe of renewing 

 the power of adlion exhaufted by exercife. 



In the article Life we have ftated, that the internal 

 funftions, which make up the organic hfc, differ remark- 

 ably from the external, which compofe the animal life, in 

 the duration of their aftion ; that while the former go on 

 inceffantly, the latter are fubjeft to intermiffions or periods 

 of complete repofe, each particular organ experiencing, 

 from its adlivity, an exhauftion of power, a fatigue, which 

 renders reft abfolutely necefl'ary before it can be again ex- 

 erted ; which exhauftion or fatigue is unknown in the or- 

 ganic life. This law, of the intcrmiffion of action, has 

 been very fatisfacSorily applied by Bichat to the theory of 

 deep. " General (leep," fays he, " is the ademblage of 

 particular (leeps. It is derived from that law of the animal 

 life, which caufes in its funttions a conftant fuccelTion of 

 periods of aftivity, and times of intcrmiffion ; — a law, which 

 pointedly diftinguilhes it from the organic life. Hence 

 (leep influences the latter only in an indireil way, while it 

 exerts its full operation on the former. 



" Numerous varieties may be remarked in this periodic 

 ftate, to which all animals are expofed. The moft com- 

 plete fleep is that, in which the whole external life, that 

 is, the fenfes, perception, imagination, memory, judgment, 

 locomotion, and the voice, are fufpended ; the leaft perfeft 

 aft'efts only a fingle organ. We fee numerous gradations 

 between thefe two extremes ; foroetimes the fenfes, per- 

 ception, locomotion, and the voice, are fufpended; imagina- 

 tion, memory, and judgment remaining aftive ; fometimes 

 locomotion and the voice are added to the latter. Such is 

 the fleep which is agitated by dreams. A portion of the 

 animal life Itill continues aftive, having efcaped the torpi- 

 dity in which the reft is plunged. Three or four fenfes 

 only may have paffed into the ftate of repofe, and ceafed 

 to be influenced by external objefls ; then that kind of fom- 

 nambulifm occurs, in which, to the aftion of the brain, the 

 mufcles, and the larynx, are added thofe of hearing and 

 touch, often in a very diftinft form. 



" Let us then no longer regard (leep as a conftant 

 ftate, invariable in its phenomena. Scarcely do we (leep 

 twice together in the fame way ; a multitude of caufes 

 modifies this condition of our being, by applying to a greater 

 or fnialler portion of the animal life the general I:iw of in- 

 termittent aftion. The various modifications mull be cha- 

 rafterifed by the funftions, which are uffeCled in different 

 initances. The principle is the fame throughout, from the 

 fimple relaxation, which follows the contratlion of a volun- 

 tary mufcle, to the entire fufpenfion of the animal life. 

 Sleep is in all cafes a confequcnce of that general law of 

 intermiffion, which exclufively charaderifes this life, but 

 the application of which to the various external functions 

 varies infinitely. 



" This explanation of fleep is undoubtedly very different 

 from thofe narrow fyftcms, which place its caufc in the 

 brain, the heart, the large vefiels, the ftomach, &c. and 

 thus prefent an infulated phenomenon, often illufory, as the 

 bafis of one of the great modifications of life. 



" Why do light and darkncfs, in the natural order of 

 things, correfpond refpedively to the activity and repofe of 



the 



