S P 1 



S P 1 



fula, which fecures it from the eaflerly winds. Its entrance 

 faces the N.N.E., but it is fheltered and protected by an 

 iflet, on which the Venetians had built a fortrefs, fimilar to 

 that of Suda. For a long time the Turks made fniitlefs 

 attempts to render themfelves mailers of this fortrefs ; and 

 it was not till the beginning of the laft century that the 

 Venetians permitted them to take pofl'eflion of it. N. lat. 

 35° 13'. E. long. 25 42'. 



SPINARELLA, in Ichthyology, a name sriven by Bel- 

 lonius, and fome other authors, to the little fifli called by us 

 the hjfer Jl'ickhback. In the Linnoean fyltem, this is a diftindl 

 fpecies of the gafteroiteus. 



SPINATUS, in Anatomy, a name given by Riolanus, and 

 others, to a mufcle of the neck, called by Albinus fpinalis 

 lolTt, and by Winflow, and the other French writers, les ver- 

 lebraux externes du demi-epineux, ou tranfverfaire ep'ineux du col. 

 See SpI^^'^LIS and Transveksalis. 



SPINCOURT, in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of the Meufe, and chief place of a canton, in the 

 dillrict of Montmedy. The place contains 466, and the can- 

 ton 9948 inhabitants, on a territory of zS;-! kiliometres, in 

 27 communes. 



SPINDLE, in Mechanics. See Double Cone, and Mex- 



StRATION. 



The axis of the wheel of a watch or cluck is called the 

 fpindle, and its ends the pivot. 



SriNDLE, Parabolic. See PynAMiDOiD. 



For the method of finding its folidity, fee Solidity. 



Spindle, in Sea Language, a fort of iron-pin, tapering at 

 he upper end to aponit. It is ufed to ftick into the upper 

 end of the top-gallant mail, fo as to carry a vane, which, 

 turning thereon horizontally, will (hew the direftion of the 

 wind. It is ufually crowned with a globular or conical 

 liece of wood, called the acorn, which prevents the vane 

 'rom being blown off. 



Spindle alfo denotes the lower end or foot of the cap- 

 ftan, which is fltod with iron, and becomes the pivot or axis, 

 upon which it turns in the faucer. See Capstan. 



Spindle, in Mining, apiece of wood fattened into either 

 llow-bladc. Sec Stows. , 



Thefe Hows give a miner, or any other perfon that owns 

 them, as good a right to a meer or meers of ground, (fo that 

 every meer have a pair of ftows fet on them,) as a deed of 

 conveyance doth to any purchafer. 



Spindle-5'/W/. See Trumi'et-5/W/. 



Spindle-TVcc, in Botany. See Euonymu.s. 



It is generally fuppofed that the euonymus of the ancients 

 is the fame plant that we at this time call by this name. The 

 words of Theophrallus have probably given occafion to this 

 opinion ; as they found at firlt reading like words expref- 

 (ing the charaftcrs of the fruit of this tree ; but on a clofer 

 inlpeftion, they will be found to exprtfs a fruit of a very 

 different kind. This author iavs, that the fruit of the euo- 

 nymus is like tile pod of the fefamum, marked with four 

 protuberant ribs, and hard within, and divided into places 

 for tour orders of ieeds. It is plain by this, that as their 

 fefamum bore an oblorg pod marked with four ribs, fo as to 

 feem of a quadrangular figure, fo did their euonymus, and 

 that in this long pod there were four orders of feeds, eacli of 

 thele orders containing a great many feeds. Now the fruit 

 of our euonymus is fhort and not at all like a pod, and 

 contains only four feeds, and not four orders of feeds ; there 

 ia alfo this fartiier proof of our euonymus not being that 

 of the ancients, that our's is a wholefome food to cattle, and 

 they are very fond of cropping it whenever they ran reach 

 it, and never get any hurt by it ; whereas the euonymus of 



the Greeks was poifonous to cattle, according to Theophraf- 

 tus. See FusANUs and Tetuastoechon. 



Svi'SOLE-Tree, yIfrican,ov Climbing. See ST.wi-'J'ree. 



Spindle-TV^!-, Bajlard. See Kiccelaria. 



SPINDLING, in Agriculture, the a£t of running to fe*d 

 in plants of the grain and other kinds. A great deal, in this 

 bufinefs, depends upon the manner in which the plants are 

 cultivated. 



SPINE, \n Anatomy, (the vertebral or fpinal column; 

 the back-bone, in common language ; fpina dorfi,) is the 

 articulated bony pillar at the back of the trunk, forming 

 the foundation or balis of fupport and connexion to all the 

 other parts of the frame. It is placed perpendicularly in the 

 body, fuftaining the head by its upper extremity, while its 

 lower end relts on the pelvis. The bones of the chelt, to 

 which the upper extremities are connefted, are fixed to its 

 fides ; while the olfa innominata, or the great bones, to which 

 the lower limbs are articulated, are immovably united to it 

 below. It is the point of attachment and fupport, in front, 

 for the vifcera of the thorax and abdomen, and for the great 

 trunks of the blood-velfels. We may thus regard it as the 

 central and mod elTential piece of the (keleton ; as the centre 

 of motion for the head and limbs ; and the bafis of fupport 

 for all the great internal organs. Again ; the bones which 

 compofe it give attachment to the principal mufcles moving 

 the head, the (lioulders, and the arms, to thofe wliicii aft 

 upon the trunk, and to fome part of the abdominal mufcles, 

 and of thofe whicli move the lower limbs. Further, it con- 

 llitutes a canal, which receives and protects the medulla fpi- 

 nalis, and gives ifTue to the various nerves proceeding from 

 that organ to the trunk and limbs. The importance of the 

 fpine, on all the accounts juft enumerated, is fo great, that 

 it confUtutes a leading charafter, modifying all the other 

 details of organization in the animals which pofiefs it. 

 Hence the prnnary divifion of the animal kingdom into verte- 

 bral and invertebral animals, adopted by tlie great modem 

 naturahfts, with Lamarck and Cuvier at their head, is founded 

 on the prefence or ablencc ot the vertebral column. 



The fpine is formed of twenty nine pieces of bone, Urongly 

 articulated to each other, and placed in fucceflion from above 

 downwards. The twenty-four upper ones are called ver- 

 tebra, and arc farther named cervical, dorfal, and lumbar, 

 according as they occupy the neck, back, or loins : there 

 are feven of the iirll kind, twelve of the fecond, and five of 

 the lalt. The five other pieces of the column are the facrum, 

 and the four offa coccygis, which form the back of the pelvis ; 

 the firft being articulated to the twenty-fourth vertebra, and 

 the latter to the end of the facrum and to each other. 



The form of the fpine is fymmetrical ; but the two halves 

 do not always correfpond accurately in the healthy (late, 

 and the deviations arc Hill more remarkable in difcafe. As 

 the weight to be fuilaincd by this bony column increafes 

 conftantly from above downwards, the bulk of the vertebrrc, 

 and, confequently, the ftrength of the pillar, increafe alfo in 

 the fame direftion, with a trivial exception or two, which 

 will be noticed afterwards. In the attitude of (landing, the 

 vertebrae are all fituatcd horizontally ; tlicir procelles, how- 

 ever, deviate in various ways from this direiflion. They are 

 dillinguifhcd numerically in the diflcrent regions, excepting 

 the firll and fecond cervical, which are commonly called atlas 

 and vertebra dentata or axis. The general configuration 

 of thefe bones is the fame throughout ; they are formed ou 

 a common plan, but this plan is modified in each divifion by 

 circumdanccs peculiar to the different regions. The didri- 

 bution of them into three dalles is principally founded on 

 thefe modifications : the dalles arc indeed named from their 



pofition^ 



