585 
SAL 
chopped meat and pickled herrings, with oil, vinegar, 
pepper, and onions. 
SALMASIA [so named in memory of Claudius Salma- 
sius], in Botany, a genus of the class pentandria, order 
trigynia, natural order of Cisti (JussJ.-~ Generic Character. 
Calyx: perianth one-leafed, five parted; segments oblong, 
acute, permanent. Corolla: petals five, oblong, clawed, 
inserted into the receptacle, the length of the calyx. 
Stamina: filaments five, capillary, the length of the corolla, 
iuserted into the receptacle. Anthers roundish. Pistil: 
germ three-corned, superior. Style none. Stigmas three. 
Pericarp: capsule three-cornered, three-celled, three-valved. 
Partitions contrary to the valves. Seeds very many, minute. 
—Essential Character. Calyx five parted. Corolla five- 
petalled. Style none. Capsule three-celled, three-valved, 
many-seeded. 
Salmasia racemosa.—This is a shrub with round hirsute 
rufescent branches. Leaves alternate, sub-sessile, oblong 
acuminate, quite entire, smooth. Stipules linear, hirsute, 
deciduous. Flowers white in long axillary and termi¬ 
nating racemes. Peduncles hirsute.—Native of Guiana in 
woods. 
SALMASIUS, or Saumaise, (Claude), a learned 
writer, was born at Saumur, in the year 15S8. He 
received the elementary part of his education under his 
father, and afterwards studied at Paris and Heidelberg. He 
succeeded Scaliger as professor of history at Leyden. 
Richelieu offered him a considerable pension on condition of 
his settling in France, which Salmasius refused. 1'he king, 
however, conferred upon him considerable honours, and 
made him counsellor of state. In 1649, he wrote a de¬ 
fence of Charles I. of England, to which Milton replied. 
(See Milton.) In the following year he went to Sweden, 
on an invitation from queen Christina. He died at Spa, in 
1653. His principal works are “ Historic August® Scrip- 
tores Sex;” “ De modo Usurarum“ Dissertatio de Foe- 
nore trepezetico, in tres fibres diviso“ De Re militari 
Romanorum“ De Hellenistica ;” and he was the editor of 
several ancient authors, as Floras, Polyhistor, Simplicius on 
Epictetus, &c. 
Though violent as a controversalist, Salmasius was, in 
private life, extremely mild and unassuming. His mind was 
a vast magazine of multifarious knowledge, laid up by the 
help of memory and application, but crude, inexact, and 
little adorned by taste or judgment. There was scarcely any 
topic of learned discussion in which he did not engage, and 
he contributed to the illustration of numerous works of an¬ 
tiquity. Most of the great scholars of his time speak of him 
with high commendation, though he had also many enemies 
and detractors, whom he provoked by that arrogance and 
propensity to abuse which has been but too common among 
critics. One of Salmasius’s biographers, Sorbiere, has thus 
described his literary character. “ It is impossible to dispute 
his opinions, in the smallest degree, without being called a 
Blockhead or an idiot; and an antagonist must lay his ac r 
count with receiving from him a thousand insults, which 
rather fall upon the person, than defend the point in question. 
For these forty years that he has been setting the press to 
work, nothing has fallen from his pen but invectives, 
sparingly mixed with solid knowledge. He has constructed 
no work with'lime and sand by which posterity will be be¬ 
nefited. He cannot live without illustrious enemies, and 
without some quarrel upon his hands; and it does not suffice 
him to have disarmed his man, and obtained from him usual 
satisfaction, he must trample him in the dirt, and disfigure 
him. His latinity runs away with him. He is unwilling 
that all the foul language which he has learnt should be lost, 
and he finds it more easy to produce from the stores of his me¬ 
mory the reproachful terms which he has collected from an¬ 
cient authors, than delicate raillery and sound argument 
from any other source.” Salmasius composed with rapidity, 
and is said never to have revised what he had written. The 
abundance of matter that occurred to him while engaged on 
any subject, led him perpetually into digressions, and to for- 
Vol. XXII. No. 1524. 
SAL 
get what he had advanced, and even plunged him into con¬ 
tradictions, so that he has been described as a receptacle of 
erudition rather than an able dispenser of it. 
SALMAST. See Selmast. 
SALMESTON, a village of England, in Kent, near Mar¬ 
gate. 
SALMO, [Lat. probably from salto, to leap, in allusion 
to the well-known power of leaping displayed by these 
fishes.] a genus of fishes of the order abdominales. The 
Generic Character is, that the body is covered with scales; 
the second dorsal fin adipOus, or fat, and destitute of 
rays. 
The fishes of this genus are in general the handsomest, 
the best tasted, and the most wholesome, of the finny tribe; 
but some must be excepted, whose flesh is too fat. They 
have commonly a lengthened body, covered with round 
scales with thin stripes, ornamented with beautiful spots, 
and furnished with eight fins. The head is- without scales, 
flattened at the sides. The mouth is large : the lips small; 
sometimes the upper jaw is protruded beyond the under; 
there are sharp teeth, not only in the mouth, but also in the 
throat and upon the tongue. The tongue is white, gristly, 
and moveable. The eyes are not very large, and are placed 
at the sides of the head. The nostrils are divided by an in¬ 
termediate membrane, and are placed between the eyes and 
the upper lip. The coverings of the gills consist of three 
bony laminae. The membrane of the gills is furnished with 
strong osseus rays in some species to the number of twelve. 
The back is round, and forms almost a straight line from head 
to tail. The lateral line, which is nearer to the back than to 
the belly, is almost straight from head to tail. The sides are 
but little flattened; the belly is straight; the anus is near the 
tail-fin. 
They are voracious fish, and haunt rapid streams which 
have a bottom of sand or fhnt, and soon die when taken out 
of the water. Some live in the ocean, as the salmon, the 
salmon trout, and the grayling ; but in spring they seek the 
rivers, make long voyages, and return to the salt water after 
spawning time. 
With respect to the interior construction of fishes of this 
genus, the oesophagus is in large folds; the stomach is se¬ 
parate, consisting of a thick skin. The intestinal canal has 
but two sinuosities, and is furnished with several appendages 
at the beginning. The air bladder is not divided ; the roe 
and ovaries are double. The gall is yellow, and not very 
bitter; and the cavity of the belly is very long. 
Fishes of this genus are most generally found in the 
northern ocean ; the eastern and western seas contain but 
few, and the Mediterranean furnishes but two species; so 
that it is not surprising that Greek and Roman naturalists 
describe but few. 
This genus is separated into four distinct divisions. 
I. Into those genera whose body is variegated: II. Those 
whose dorsal and anal fins are opposite to each other: III. 
Those which have scarcely any teeth, or which at least are 
barely discernable: and IV. Those whose gill-membrane 
has not more than four rays. 
I.—Body variegated. 
i. Salmo Salar, or common salmon.—-This well-known 
fish, when the mouth is shut, has the upper jaw pro¬ 
truding a little; this, and the 13 rays in the anal fin, form 
the distinctive character. In males of the full growth, the 
under jaw forms a kind of hook which shuts info a cavity of 
the upper. There are 12 rays in the membrane of the gills; 
14 in the pectoral fms, 10 in the ventrals, 13 in the anal, 21 
in the tail, and 14 in the dorsal. 
In both jaws there are sharp teeth, between which there 
are smaller ones, which are moveable or loose ; the upper 
jaw not only has more than the lower, but there are also on 
both sides of the palate two rows of sharp teeth ; besides 
these, on etich side of the oesophagus, near the gills, there is 
a bone, with such-like teeth, bending inwards; and on the 
7 K tongue 
