S P L 



Iree into the flock of another, by cutting them floping, and 

 fattening them together. 



SPLINTS, in Ancient Armour, a defence for the arms, 

 ■which conftituted part of the fuit denominated an Almaine 

 ryvatt. 



Splints, are long pieces of thin wood, or pafteboard, 

 ufed in Surgery, for affording fupport and fleadinefs to frac- 

 tured bones. 



SPLINTE RS of the Bone, in Frallures. In cafes of frac- 

 tures, the furgeon is frequently troubled with fplinters of the 

 bone in the way, which vellicate and prick the neighbouring 

 parts, and render the proper execution of his office very dif- 

 ficult. If thefe fplinter? are loofe, and have no connexion 

 with the bone, they muft be carefully lifted out of the 

 wound ; if they hang to the bone in fome part by the periof- 

 teum, that mull be cut off with the fcilFors ; but if they 

 adhere pretty firmly to the neighbouring parts, and do not 

 hinder the reduction of the bone, it is beft to replace the 

 bone, and leave them either to loofen, and come out of 

 themfelves by the fuppuration of the parts, or to grow 

 again, as they fometimes will fafely and firmly do, to the 

 rell of the bone. When they adhere pretty firmly to the 

 principal parts of the bone, they fhould never be extrafted 

 by force, but replaced with the greatcit exaftnefs ; for when 

 this is properly performed, they will frequently unite to the 

 refl of the bone. 



When the points of fplinters of bones flick fo far out, 

 that they are a great hindrance to the reduftion of the bone, 

 you are diligently to confider whether you can, by any 

 means, contrive their reunion to the bone, which may be 

 determined, by obferving at what dillance they are from the 

 large bone, and what quantity of flefh there is intervening : 

 when they cannot be reduced, or reunited to the bone, they 

 muft be removed with a pair of ftrong forceps, or, if they 

 flick very firmly, with a fine faw. If the fplinters are buried 

 iinder the fkin, and cannot be got at with hands, it is pro- 

 per firft to try if they can be reduced to their natural fitua- 

 tion ; and if they cannot, an incifion muft be made through 

 the fkin, that they may be taken out. See Fracture. 



SPLIT, in Botany, a name given by fome authors to the 

 grest fomaria iulio/a, or hollow root. 



Split, at Sea. When a fail is blown to pieces, the feamen 

 fay it is fplit. 



Split, when applied to a fhip, denotes the ftate of being 

 ftranded and bilged on a rock or fliore. 



Split Rod, in Geography, a rocky headland on the W. 

 fide of lake Champlain ; 56 miles N. of Skenefborough. 



SPLITTING, in Agriculture, a term employed in the 

 praftice of paring land with the plough in fome diftrifts. 

 In it the plough always turns upon the left of the firft fur- 

 row, and the coulter is held clofe all the way to the lifted 

 flice previoufly turned over, and which now covers a balk 

 or rib of whole unmoved ground. The fame fort of work, 

 in fome of the eaftern diftrifts of this country, is denomi- 

 nated wrell-balking ; but the praftice has there a very dif- 

 ferent intention to that which induces it in the county of 

 Devon and fome others. 



It is a term which is likewife ufed in common ploughing 

 to fignify the divifion of the ridges, by making the furrow 

 parts of the old ones the middle parts of the new ones. 

 Thus, by beginning at the furrows, and laying the furrow 

 flices of the different ridges towards each other, by continu- 

 ally turning in that direftion, the furrows become the middles 

 and the middles the furrows. It is ufed in oppofition to 

 gathering, which lias the contrary effeft. 



It is ufed too in fetting and taking up fome forts of crops 

 II 



S PO 



which are fet in particular manners, as thofe of the potator 

 kind, when fet in the ridge method, as by fplitting the 

 ridges with the plough or other tool, the fets are uncovered, 

 and perfons are enabled to pick and fecure the potatoes, kc. 



Splitting. To fpht a thin piece of metal, as an old 

 filver groat, place the metal on the heads of three pins fluck 

 up triangularly, and let a lieap of flour of brimltone burn 

 out upon it ; then throwing it hard againft the floor, the 

 upper part will feparate from the lower. Boyle's Works, 

 abr, vol. i. p. 134. 



SPLUGEN, in Geography, a mountain in the county of 

 Chiavenna ; 8 miles N.W. of Chiavenna. Towards the fum- 

 niit of the mountain is an oval plain, about two miles long 

 and one broad, encircled with craggy points : it produces 

 no trees, but yields rich pafturage : near the fummit are 

 rude blocks of a whitifh kind of marble. Above this oval 

 plain is the fource of the Lira, which falls into the lake of 

 Chiavenna. On the other fide of the higheft ridge the 

 torrents flow towards the Rhine. The paflage over mount 

 Splugen ii principally ufed for the tranfport of merchandize 

 to and from Coire ; it is kept open even in winter, though 

 not without great difficulty : in that feafon the merchandize 

 is chiefly tranfported on fledges, of which forty or fifty pafo 

 in a day. — Alfo, a town of the Grifons, fituated upon the 

 rife of a hill, at the bottom of a rugged chain of Alps, and 

 principal place of a jurifdrition, in the Rbeinwald ; 16 miles 

 N.W. of Chiavenna. Two high roads meet at Splugen ; 

 one from Chiavenna, and the other leading over the Bernard 

 into Bellinzone. From Splugen to Arder the road continues 

 by the fide of the Hynder Rhine, through a mountainous 

 region, which prefents at every ftep the moft awful magni- 

 ficence of fcenery. 



SPODDEN, a river of England, which runs into the 

 Roch, at Rochdale, in Lancafhire. 



SPODIUM, in Pharmacy, a kind of abforbent calx, or 

 afhes, efteemed drying, and by fome held to have the fame 

 virtues with coral. 



The fpodium of the ancient Greeks was a greyifh kind 

 of recrement, found in form of afhes, on the hearths of fur- 

 naces in which brafs was made ; and called by them aroJior, 

 which literally fignifies ajhes- 



Spodium is a metalline powder, nearly akin, both in ori- 

 gin and ufe, to tutia and pompholyx ; only it is heavier than 

 either. 



The fpodium of the Arabian phyficians, as Avicenna and 

 others, was made of the burnt roots of rulhes and reeds. 

 Some moderns alfo make a fpodium of ivory burnt and 

 calcined to a blacknefs. This is fometimes coutlTerfeited 

 by burning bullocks' or dogs' bones ; but thefe are of no 

 value. 



The anti-fpodium, which the ancients fubftituted for their 

 fpodium, was made of myrtle-leaves, galls, and fume other 

 ingredients calcined. 



SPODUMENE, in Mineralogy, Triphane, Haiiy, a mi- 

 neral which bears lome refemblance to adularia, but differs 

 from it in the ftrufture, which is foliated, with a threefold 

 cleavage. It divides into prifms with rhomboidal bafes, 

 having alternate angles of eighty and one hundred degrees. 

 It is tranflucent and frangible, but fomewhat harder than 

 glafs. The colour of fpodumene is a greenifh-white or 

 grey, and fometimes oil-green. The fpecific gravity is from 

 3.192 to 3.218. It occurs, both maffive and diffeminated, at 

 Uton, in Sudermanland, Sweden, at which place it has only 

 been found at prefent. Before the blowpipe it feparates into 

 fmall gold-coloured laminx, which melt by a continuation 

 of the heat into a greenifh-white glafs. 



The 



