SUL 
*or hath covenanted with another to sue to 
his court. Fourthly, suit custom, when a 
man and his ancestors have been seized, 
time out of mind, of his suit. Fifthly, suit 
real, or regal, when men come to the she- 
riff’s town, or leet. Sixthly, suit signifies 
the following one in chace, as fresh suit. 
Lastly, it signifies a petition made to the 
king, or any great person. 
SUKOTYRO, in natural history, a genns 
of Mammalia. Of the order Bruta. Gene- 
ric character : horn on each side near the 
eyes. The only species of this genus is the 
S. Indicus, first noticed by a Dutch traveller 
in the seventeenth century, and which has 
indeed never been described by any other. 
It is represented as equal in .size to a large 
ox, and possessing the snout of a hog, with 
ears rough and long, different from the po- 
sition of those of all other quadrupeds, tail 
bushy, eyes upright in the head, and next 
to these having on each side a liorn or tusk, 
approaching in size to that of an elephant. 
It is said to be a native of Java, and to feed 
on herbage. As this acount, however, docs 
not appear to have been confirmed by any 
traveller since Niewhoffe’s time, and some 
of his representations in natural history are 
extremely slovenly and incorrect, it does 
not appear a very blameable scepticism to 
doubt the existence of such an animal. See 
Mammalia, Plate XX. fig. 4. 
SULPHATES, in chemistry, salts form- 
ed by the combination of any base with 
the sulphuric acid ; of these we shall notice 
only the sulphate of soda, known in the 
shops by the name of Glauber’s salts. This 
salt was discovered by the alchymist Glau- 
ber ; but since his time it has been largely 
used in medicine. Chemists have described 
various modes of obtaining this salt. It ex- 
ists likewise native in mineral springs, and 
sometimes it effloresces on the walls of old 
buildings. Sulphate of soda crystallizes in 
six-sided prisms, bevelled at the extremi- 
ties, and longitudinally grooved : its taste 
is strongly saline and bitter. It is efflores- 
cent; and when exposed to a very dry ’at- 
mosphere, the surface of the crystals soon 
becomes white and opaque, and at length 
they fall into powder : it is soluble in rather 
less than three times its weight of water at 
60°, and in less than its own weight of boil- 
ing water. The sulphate of soda, when 
erystallized, is composed of 
Soda 18.43 
Sulphuric acid 23.-52 
Water 58.00 
100.00 
SUL 
SULPHITES, salts formed by the corn- 
bination of any basd with the sulphureous 
acid. Tliese have always a disagreeable 
sulphurous taste : they are decomposed by 
the nitric, muriatic, and some other acids ; 
they are converted into sulphates by expo- 
sure to the atmosphere, drawing from it the 
oxygen. These salts were first noticed and 
described by Stahl : they are mostly formed 
artificially, by saturating the alkaline and 
earthy bases with sulphureous acid. 
SULPHUR, an inflammable fossil, of 
which there are two species ; viz. com- 
mon natural sulphur, and volcanic natural 
sulphur. The colour of the natural sulphur 
is yellow of different degrees of intensity : 
it occurs massive, disseminated, and crys- 
tallized. The crystals are middle-sized and 
small, of which the surface is smooth and 
splendent. Internally it is intermediate 
between shining and glistening. It is soft 
and frangible. When placed on inflamed 
coals, it burns with a bluish flame, and 
emits a pungent suffocating vapour, and is 
totally volatilized. It is found in many parts 
of tlie world. It occurs commonly in masses, 
in gypsum, lime-stone, and marl : and in some 
places with honey-stone, and bituminous 
wood. It is often found in veins that tra- 
verse primitive rocks ; in veins of copper 
pyrites that traverse grqnite : in Siberia it 
is found in the gold mines of Catherineburg, 
and in the lead-glance veins in the Altain 
mountains. Humboldt mentions a province 
of Quito, in which he discovered a bed 
composed of sulphur and quartz, in a moun- 
tain of mica slate ; he likewise found great 
quantities of sulphur in primitive porphyry. 
The volcanic natural sulphur is yellow, 
inclining to green : it occurs sometimes 
corroded ; sometimes as a sublimate in 
flowers. It glistening, and its lustre is 
resinous, inclining to adamantine. It oc- 
curs only in volcanic countries, where it is 
found in greater or smaller quantity among 
the lava. Solfatara, in the vicinity of Ve- 
suvius, is one of the most famous reposito- 
ries of natural volcanic sulphur, and is there 
collected in considerable quantities for the 
purposes of commerce. It is found also in 
Iceland, in Etna, and in the Lipari island. 
It occurs likewise in the island of Teneriffe, 
and in the West India islands ; in Java, and 
the East Indies. Having thus described 
this substance mineralogically, we turn to 
it in a chemical view. 
Sulphur is a simple undecompounded 
combustible substance, which is universally 
diffused in nature ; but most commonly 
in a state of combination with mineral, ve- 
