S M A 



S M A 



for when fown very thick, if deeply covered with mould, 

 the plants do not rife regularly. In thefe early fpring fow- 

 ings, on cold nights, and in all bad weather, it is proper to 

 cover the ground, both before and after the plants begin to 

 rife, with large mats ; which will be better, if fupported on 

 low hoop-arches, or ranges of pegs (luck in the ground juft 

 high enough to fupport the mats a little from the earth, by 

 which a more effedlual as well as forward crop is pro- 

 duced. 



But in the latter fowings, when dry warm weather com- 

 mences, it is proper to give occafional waterings. It is 

 likewife fometimes necellary, where the furface of the ground 

 becomes crulted from wet, &c. as the plants rife thick, to 

 flightly bru(h over the furface with the hand or a foft broom, 

 fo as to reduce the furface mould a little, and promote their 

 coming up. 



Summer Sowings. — When the fowings are praftifed in 

 fummer, they (hould be made more frequently, and the 

 ground be kept watered occafionally, both before and after 

 the plants are come up. 



jiutumn Sewings. — The fowings may be continued in the 

 open ground all September and Oftober, alfo occafionally 

 in November, in mild feafons ; and until towards the middle 

 of Oftober, they may be made in any open fituations ; but 

 from the middle or latter end of Oftober, and in November, 

 they muft be on warm fouth borders, performing the fow- 

 ings as above ; and in cold nights, bellowing a covering of 

 mats or hand-glafles, &c. repeating the fowings every week 

 or ten days, or a fortnight, as required. 



In gathering young fallading, it (hould be cut carefully 

 clofe to the ground, while quite young ; in performing 

 which, a large pair of fciflbrs is very convenient. 



In order to have good feed, fome plants Ihould be pre- 

 ferved annually for the purpofe. 



Small Stones, among Jewellers, denote diamonds under 

 the weight of a carat. 



SMALL-lFori, is ufed to denote the ftar and (hell-facets 

 of diamonds. 



SMALL AGE, in Botany, a fpecies of aplum ; which 

 fee. 



SmaUage grows naturally by the fides of ditches, in many 

 parts of England, and is therefore rarely cultivated in gar- 

 dens : it is biennial, and flowers in Augutl. Care fliould 

 be taken to diftinguifli fmallage from the poifonous water- 

 hemlock, which grows naturally in the fame places with it : 

 the latter has its leaves deeply divided, quite to the pedicle, 

 into three long narrow ftiarp-pointed fegments ; whereas 

 thofe of fmallage are only flightly cut into three roundifh 

 obtufe ones. 



The root is that part which was formerly ufed in medi- 

 cine : it is about the thicknefs of a thumb, whitilh, fibrous, 

 of a warm tade, and a fragrant fmell ; and was reckoned 

 one of the five greater openers of the (hops. It was reputed 

 to be grateful and detergent, to promote urine, and to dif- 

 lodge gravel ; and it was alfo recommended in diforders of 

 the breaft, and for promoting expedloration. 



The fre(h roots, efpecially when produced in their native 

 watery places, are fuppofed to participate, in fome degree, 

 of the ill quality of thofe of the hemlock kind, and to 

 be particularly hurtful to epileptic perfons and pregnant 

 women. 



Its feed was alfo of the number of the letter hot feeds, 

 and was thought to poffefs greater virtues as a carminative 

 and aperient than the root ; its leaves having been given in 

 decoAion, or the exprelTed juice of them in nephritic com- 

 plaints. The root was greatly recommended againft fup- 

 preflions of the raenfes, and of the lochia, and was even 



faid to be alone a remedy for the king's evil ; but thi» 

 wants proof. 



Smallage is now wholly exploded from the materia 

 medica. 



SMALL-POX, in Medicine, the Variola of authors, a 

 highly contagious and formidable eruptive fever, which oc- 

 curs in general but once during the life of any individual, 

 and is diftinguilhed by the appearance of puilules on the 

 (kin, on the third or fourth day of the fever. 



As we have already entered into a brief detail of the littie 

 that is known relpefting the origin and early propagation of 

 fmall-pox, (fee Inoculation,) it may be fufficitnt to men 

 tion in this place, that it is generally believed that this con- 

 tagious malady exilted in China and Hindoollan, perhaps for 

 fome centuries previous to its appearance in Europe ; but 

 that there are no very authentic records of its travelling to 

 the welt, until the period of the fiege of Mecca by the Abyf- 

 finians, in the year 572, when it deilroyed the invading army. 

 Alexandria being at that time the great mart of Indian com- 

 merce, was foon infcfted with the contagion, and the firll 

 defcription of the difeafe was given by Ahron, a phyfician of 

 that city, in the beginning of the following century. From 

 that time it accompanied the Arabs or Saracens in their pro- 

 grelTive expeditions, and Europe was contaminated by their 

 invafions of Spain, Sicily, Italy, and France in the eighth 

 century. Previous to this period, it is generally believed 

 that this deftruftive peililence was unknown in Europe. 

 This is principally inferred from the filence of all the ancient 

 phyficians, Greeks and Romans, who have left us accurate 

 defcriptions of many of the difeaies, with which we are now 

 familiar, but who have not defcribed the llriking and pecuhar 

 fymptoms which charafterize this feverc and often fatal 

 malady. Some authors, however, and not without a (how 

 of probability, have maintained that fuch an inference is not 

 flridlly deducible from this circumllance. For the ancients 

 were apt to confound every Ipecies of fatal fever under the 

 term pejlilence, and were milled, by their hypothetical doc- 

 trines about the four humours, to make no diftinflions from 

 a view of the fymptoms. Some of the ancient plagues, and 

 particuLirly that of Athens, defcribed by Thucydides, were 

 raanifeltly not the plague properly fo called, but were con- 

 nefted with extenfive fores and eruptions on the (kin. (See 

 Plague.) It has been urged, too, that in a fragment of 

 the works of one Herodotus of Rome, preferved by Aetius, 

 there is a defcription of various fevers, accompanied bv 

 eruptions, in which the fmall-pox appears to be diftin£lly 

 included. It is remarkable, too, that the firlt Arabian phy- 

 ficians, even Ahron of Alexandria, do not mention the dif- 

 eafe as a new malady, but fpeak of it as one familiarly known ; 

 and Rhazes refers to Galen, as hi.ving mentioned many of 

 its fymptoms. _ The evidence in fupport of this opinion 

 is certainly very imperfed, and fcarcely fufRcient to build a 

 controverfy upon ; nor is it of any farther importance than 

 as an objedl of curious inquiry. 



.^11 that relates to the hillory and praftice of inoculation 

 (which, indeed, (hould now be fuperfeded by vaccination) 

 has been alfo detailed in the article already referred to. At 

 prefent, therefore, our objeft is to give only the medical 

 hiftory of fmall-pox, as it occurs in the cafual, or, as it is often 

 called, the natural way ; defcribing, firll, its fymptoms, with 

 the prognollics, and various tendencies of the difeafe, and 

 afterwards the bell methods of treatment. 



The term variola, which ii of modern origin, is fuppofed to 

 be derived from vari, which are fmall inflamed tumours of 

 the face, occurring about the period of puberty, and noticed 

 firft by Celfus under that appellation. The words pod, 

 pods, and pox, from the Anglo-Saxon pocca, fignifying a 



pouch. 



