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SECURIS (John), an English physician of considerable 
character. He is chiefly remarkable as the author of “ A 
Detection and Querimony of the daily Enormities and 
Abuses committed in Physic, concerning the Three Parts 
thereof.” Lond. 1566. This is a little treatise, on the often 
repeated complaint of the intrusion of irregularly educated 
persons into the practice of physic, and the presumption of 
surgeons and apothecaries in taking upon them to act the 
physician. A peroration in verse, addressed to the two 
universities, is subjoined. 
SECURITATE PACIS, in Law, a writ which, lies for one 
who is threatened with death or danger, against the person 
who so threatens him. 
SECURITATEM inveniendi quocl se non divertat ad 
partes extcras sine licentia regis, an ancient writ lying for 
the king against any of his subjects, to stay them from going 
out of this kingdom into foreign parts; the ground whereof 
is, that every man is bound to serve and defend the common¬ 
wealth, as the king shall think fit. 
SECU'RITY, s. [securite, Fr., securitas, Lat.] Care¬ 
lessness ; freedom from- fear.—Marvellous security is always 
dangerous, when men will not believe any bees to be in a 
hive, until they have a sharp sense of their stings. Hay¬ 
ward. —Protection; defence.—If the Providence of God be 
taken away, what security have we against those innumer¬ 
able dangers to which human nature is continually exposed ? 
Til lot son. —Any thing given as a pledge or caution; in¬ 
surance; assurance for any thing; the act of giving caution, 
or being bound.—Exchequer bills have been generally 
reckoned the surest and most sacred of all securities. Swift. 
—Safety; certainty.—Some, who gave their advice for en¬ 
tering into a war, alledged that we should have no security 
for our trade, while Spain was subject to a prince of the 
Bourbon family. Swift. 
SECURIU, a river of Brazil, mentioned by Mawe, which 
passes near the town of Villa Bella, and falls into the Juruena. 
SECUTOR, among the Romans, most commonly signi¬ 
fied an attendant upon great men. In ancient inscriptions 
we also meet with sccutor tribuni, secutor ducis, secutor 
Ceesaris, &c., who were officers attending the tribunes and 
generals; perhaps like our aids-de-camp. 
SECUTORES, a kind of gladiators among the Romans, 
who fought against the retiarii, so named because they used 
to pursue the retiarii. 
The secutores were armed with a sword and a buckler, to 
keep off the net, or noose, of their antagonists; and they 
wore a cask on their head. 
Secutores was also the name given to such gladiators as 
took the place of those killed in the combat; or who fought 
the conqueror. The post was usually taken by lot. 
SED CAPE, a promontory on the north side of the 
island of Cuba, and 18 leagues from the Havannah. 
SEDAB, a name given by the Arabian physicians to the 
wild, or mountain rue. 
SEDAKI, a township of Niphon, in Japan; 40 miles 
north-west of Niphon. 
SEDA'N, s. A kind of portable coach; a chair. “I 
believe because first made at Sedan.” Johnson. —They were 
first introduced into this country in the time of king Charles 
I. The duke of Buckingham is said to have occasioned the 
introduction of them. In 1634, Sir Sanders Buncombe had 
the sole privilege allowed, for fourteen years, of letting these 
portable chairs. 
SEDAN, a considerable town in the north-east of France, 
department of the Ardennes. It is situated on the right 
bank of the Meuse, and is strongly fortified, being sur¬ 
rounded with walls, bastions, ditches and other works, con¬ 
structed partly by Vauban. The old castle, in which 
Turenne was born, is now converted into an arsenal, and is 
one of the best in France. The town is divided into Upper 
and Lower, and though not badly built, is, from the uneven 
and rocky nature of the ground which it occupies, very 
irregular. Of the population, in number nearly 11,000, a 
part are Protestants. Sedan has been long noted for its 
manufactures of superfine woollens, and for a very different 
Vol. XXII. No. 1549. 
branch of industry, the making of fire-arms and copper 
articles: it has likewise a cannon foundry. Sedan was for¬ 
merly the seat of a Protestant university ; 37 miles south-east 
of Charlemont, and 170 north-east of Paris. Lat. 49. 42. 
29. N. long. 4. 57. 50. E. 
SEDANG, a town on the north-west coast of the island 
of Borneo. Lat. 2.15. N. long. 110. 48. E. 
SEDASIER, a town of the south of India, province of 
Mysore, district of Coorg. In the year 1799, a battle was 
fought here between the troops of Tippoo Sultan and the Bri¬ 
tish, in which the latter were successful. It is situated 7 
miles north-west of Periapatam. 
SEDA'TE, adj. [sedatus, Lat.] Calm; undisturbed ; 
serene. 
With countenance calm and soul sedate. 
Thus Turnus. Dryden. 
Disputation carries away the mind from that calm and 
sedate temper which is so necessary to contemplate truth. 
Watts. 
SEDA'TELY, ado. Calmly; without disturbance.— 
Tfiat has most weight with them that appears sedately to 
come from their parents’ reason. Locke. 
SEDA'TENESS, s. Calmness; tranquillity; serenity; 
freedom from disturbance.—There is a particular sedateness 
in their conversation and behaviour that qualifies them for 
council, with a great intrepidity that fits them for action. 
Addison. 
SEDA'TION, s. Act of composing. Unused. Coles. 
SEDA'TIVE, adj. [sedatif, Fr. Cotgrave.] Assuaging; 
composing. 
SEDATIVE, [from sedare, to still, or allay, a term 
which was used by the older writers, nearly in the same 
acceptation with anodyne; namely, to denote such me¬ 
dicines as were calculated to assuage pain. But among the 
moderns it has been employed in another sense, and stands in 
opposition to stimulant. In the modern pathology, all the 
actions of the animal frame are ascribed to the agency of the 
nervous power; and whatever increases or excites that power, 
or its actions, is thence called a stimulant; and those agents, 
on the contrary, which diminish or restrain that power, or its 
actions, are therefore denominated sedatives. 
SEDBERGH, a market town of England, in the West 
Riding of Yorkshire. Here is a free school, but neither it 
nor the church contain any thing remarkable. The place 
owes its chief support to the manufacture of iron articles. It 
contains 346 houses, and 1805 inhabitants. Market on 
Wednesday; 27 miles north-west of Settle. 
SEDE, a name sometimes given to the lake of Maadie or 
Aboukir, in Lower Egypt; which see. 
SEDE, the name of one of the small natron lakes, situ¬ 
ated on the western frontier of Egypt; 55 miles north-west 
of Cairo. 
SEDEFE, a village of Upper Egypt, on the left bank of 
the Nile; 7 miles south of Abutige. 
SE DEFENDENDO, in Law, a plea for him who is 
charged with the death of another; alleging, that he was 
forced to do what he did in his own defence, the other so 
assaulting him. 
SEDEM ATTOLLENS, a name given by Vesalius to the 
levator ani. 
SE'DENTARINESS, s. The state of being sedentary; 
inactivity.—Those that live in great towns, together with 
the wealthier sort in the country, are inclined to paleness, 
which may be imputed to their sedentariness, or want of 
motion; for they seldom stir abroad. L. Addison. 
SE'DENTARY, adj. [ sedentaire, Fr., sedentario, Ifal., 
sedentarius, from sedeo, Lat.] Passed in sitting still; 
wanting motion or action.—-The blood of labouring people 
is more dense and heavy than of those who live a sedentary 
life, Arbuthnot. —Torpid; inactive; motionless. 
The sedentary earth. 
That better might with far less compass move, 
Serv’d by more noble than herself, attains 
Her end without least motion. Milton. 
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