SPA 



Spanish Cnci, a river of Florida,, which runs into the 

 river St. Mary. 



Spanish Main, that part of the Atlantic ocean which 

 wafhes the N. part of South America, from the Leeward 

 iflands to the ifthmus of Darien. The term is alfo applied 

 to the coaft. 



Spanish Point, a cape on the N.E. coaft of the iflandof 

 St. Vincent. N. lat. 13° 24'. W. long. 61° 12'. 



Spanish River, a river and fettlement on the ifland of 

 Cape Breton. 



Spanish Town, or St. Jago de la Vega, a fea-port town 

 of Middlefex county, and capital of the ifland of Jamaica, 

 fituated on the banks of the river Cobre, about fix miles 

 from the fea, and containing between 500 and 600 houfes, 

 and about 5000 inhabitants, including free people of colour. 

 It is the refidence of the governor, or commander-in-chief, 

 who is accommodated with a fuperb palace; and here the 

 legiflature is convened, and the court of chancery and the 

 fupreme court of judicature are held. N. lat. iS'" l'. W. 

 long. 76° 44'. See Jamaica. 



Spanish Town, or Virgin Gorda, one of the Virgin 

 iflands in the Weft Indies, called alfo Pennilton, belonging 

 to the Englifh, and having two good harbours. N. lat. 

 iS'' 20'. W. long. 63° 48'. See Virgin JJlands. 



SPANN, in Commerce, a corn-meafure of Sweden ; two 

 fpanns being equal to a Tunna ; which fee. 



SPANNBERG, in Geography, a town of Auftria ; 

 5 miles S. of Zifterzdorff. 



SPANNER, in Rural Economy, the name of a wrench or 

 nut fcrew-driver, which is often very ufeful for the farmer. 



SPAR, in Mineralogy, a name given by working miners 

 in England to all cryllallized minerals which have a fliining 

 lultre : it is fynonimous whh /path, from the German. 



The obfervation that fpar is continually formed at this 

 time in caves and grottoes under ground, has given birth 

 to many different conjeftures as to the origin of that fub- 

 ftance. We have accounts from Switzerland, and other 

 places, that the fnow, by long lying on the earth, and 

 being fubjeA to repeated freezing, is at length hardened 

 into fpar : this is much of the nature of that opinion of the 

 ancient^s concerning cryftal, that it was water frozen by 

 fevere colds to a fort of ice, much harder than the common 

 kind : both are equally erroneous and abfurd. But more 

 rational conjeAures, as to its original, are, that it is pro- 

 duced either by effluvia alone, or by the joint force of 

 effluvia iffuing up from the depths of the earth, and mixing 

 with water oozing out of rocks into their cracks and 

 cavities, or by the fame water or effluvia pafling through 

 beds of this fparry matter contained in clay. In the firft 

 place, we are to obferve, that fpar is capable of being 

 diffolved cither by water or vapour, and fufpended im- 

 perceptibly in either ; and that though it remains fufpended 

 a long time, yet there are occafions of its feparating itfelf 

 from either of thefe vehicles ; fuch are long ftanding ftill, 

 and evaporation. What is called the growth and formation 

 of fpar, therefore, is properly perhaps only the change of 

 place in this fubltance ; and all that thefe agents, waters 

 and vapours do, is only to wafli it out of the itrata of 

 earth or (lone, in which it lay in fcattered particles, and 

 bring it together into the cracks and crevices of ftones, 

 where it may again feparate itfelf, and become more pure 

 and perfeft. 



The operation of nature, in this cafe, is very like that of 

 art in extrafting of falts from the various bodies they 

 are mixed with ; and fpar, in its two ftates, when blended 

 in the ftrata of ftone. Sec. and when pure, and in form of 

 cryftals in the cracks, may be compared to alum, for 



SPA 



inftance, in its bed, and when purified. The alum, in th* 

 common ftones from which it is made, is not perceptible 

 to the eye, but lies in fcattered particles ; water being 

 added to this, takes up the fait, and when it has been 

 managed by evaporation and reft, yields it again purified 

 and alone, and it forms fuch cryftals on the fides of the 

 veflel as the other does on the fides of the fiftures of 

 ftone, which are the veffels where the water, out of which it 

 was formed, was fet to evaporate, and to reft a proper time. 



That fome fpars grow from vapours alone is evident, 

 from the ftalaftitse, or ftony icicles, hanging down from 

 the roofs of our caverns, which, though they grow down- 

 wards, yet have many times little plants of the fame fub- 

 ftance growing out at their fides, and ftanding upwards, 

 contrary to the growth of the other, and evidently formed 

 of the matter feparated from the vapours in their afcent, 

 as the ftalaftitx themfelves are from fuch as have afcended 

 to the roof, and there been condenfed into water, and fent 

 down again in drops. Nor is the fparry matter alone thus 

 raifed in vapour, for even the metals, and other bodies as 

 little likely as thofe to be thus raifed, yet are found to form 

 ftalaftitx. 



The mundics, in general, though they never form regular 

 ftalaftito?, yet often are found adhering to the fides of them, 

 and the metals, particularly iron and lead, form regular 

 ftalaftitEE ; the iron ones very common and very perfett ; 

 the lead lefs perfeft and more rare ; and Dr. Brown gives us 

 abundant inltanccs of fpars growing entirely from vapours 

 in the baths of Buda in Hungary. 



Mr. Beaumont is of opinion, that earth by degrees will 

 ripen into fpar ; but this is an error. He founds his opinion 

 on certain ftalaftits, and ftalagmits, found in caverns,, 

 partly earth, and partly fpar, and fuppofes that the whole 

 would in time become fpar ; but there is nothing in nature 

 to warrant this conjefture. Phil. Tranf. N° 129. 



M. de Juflieu has given us, in the Memoirs of the Paris 

 Academy, a very remarkable account of the recryftalliza- 

 tion, or reproduftion, of the parts of fpar, after iolution. 

 Mem. Acad. Paris, 17 19. 



The denomination of fpars, fays the editor of the Che- 

 mical Diftionary, is given to many ftones of different pro- 

 perties and appearances, which do not poffefs conftantly 

 any one common charafter or mark, by which they 

 may be certainly diltinguifhed from other ftones. In 

 general, we may obferve, that they are moft frequently 

 found in mines, and that they generally confift of fmooth 

 and fliining plates or laminx ; that fome are tranfparent, 

 and others opaque ; that fome are colourlefs and others 

 coloured ; that they are cryftallized in various determinate 

 figures, or poffefs no determinate Ihape ; and, laftly, that 

 they differ fo much in hardnefs, denfity, degree of fufibility, 

 and in their moft eflential chemical properties, that they 

 cannot be eonfidered as forming a diftinft clafs of foflile 

 fubrtances. 



The feveral ftones to which the name of fpar has been 

 given are, the calcareous, the gypfeous, the fluors, and felt- 

 fpar. Calcareous fpars are foft heavy ftones, which have 

 the common chemical properties of calcareous earth. The 

 texture is laminated, fome of them have no determinate 

 figure, and others from their form are called rhomboidal. 

 Some fpars, called dog's-tooth fpars, have a pyramidal 

 figure ; but when thefe are broken, their fragments ftiew 

 that they alfo confift of rhomboidal particles. Some rhom- 

 boidal fpars are tranfparent, others are opaque ; fome are 

 colourlefs, and others are coloured ; and fome of them have 

 a property of doubly refrafting the rays of light : this fpar 

 has been called refrafting fpar, or ifland cryftal. Its figure 



