722 
SAX 
the Saxon was not only-owing to the admission of new 
words, occasioned by the new alliance, but to changes of 
its own forms and terminations, arising from reasons which 
we cannot investigate or explain. Warton's English 
Poelrt/. 
SAXONIA (Hercules), was born at Padua in the year 
1551, of a family which had been already distinguished in 
the science of medicine; his father, Victor, and his paternal 
uncles, Jerom and Francis, having held a high medical re¬ 
putation at Venice and Padua. Following their example, 
Hercules decided to pursue the same profession, and ob¬ 
tained the degree of doctor in his native university. Before 
the year 1574 he was appointed to lecture on logic; but in 
1579 he removed to Venice, for the purpose of practising 
his profession, and he succeeded so w£ll, that in a few years 
he attained the highest reputation, and had more applications 
from the sick than he could attend to. It has been said, that 
even so early as 1573 he was sent for to Vienna, with Mer- 
curialis, to attend the emperor Maximilian II. in his ill¬ 
ness; but the probability is, that a man of two-and- 
twenty could not have arrived at that degree of reputation, 
and that he merely accompanied Mercurialis on his journey 
thither. After about ten years of laborious practice in 
Venice, the chair of Capivaccio becoming vacant at Padua, 
Saxonia was nominated his successor. The faculty of 
Padua welcomed him back to his native university; and he 
fulfilled the duties of his office with great credit and repu¬ 
tation from the year 1590 till 1607, when he died. 
Saxonia left several works; the first of which, “Dis- 
putatio de phasnigmis, vulgo vesicantibus, et theriacae usu in 
febribus pestilentialibus,” Patav. 1591, originated from a 
discussion with Massaria, during the prevalence of an epi¬ 
demic, when the duke of Urbino bad applied to both for 
their directions. A second work also appeared during this 
contest, entitled “De Phsenigmis Libri tres. In quibus 
agitur de universa rubificantium natura, &c.; de quorum 
usu in febribus pestilentialibus multa disputantur,” 1593. 
He next employed his pen on the subject of Syphilis, call¬ 
ing his work, “ Tractatus perfectissimus de Morbo Gallico, 
seu, de Lue Venerea,” 1593, which went through several 
editions. This was followed some time after by “Trac- 
tutus triplex, de febrium putridarum signis, de pulsibus, et 
de urinis,” Francf. 1600; “ De Pilca, quam Poloni 
Guvozdziec, Roxolani Koxtunum, vocant,” Pat. 1600 ; 
“ De pulsibus Tractatus absolutissimus,” 1603. And 
after his death were published, “ Praelectionum Practi- 
carum Libri duo,” 1610; and “Opera Practica,” 1639, 
which went through nine successive editions from the 
press of Padua, the last being printed in 1681. A pupil 
of his had also collected all that, he knew of the produc¬ 
tions of his master, and published them at Francfort, in 
1603, with the title of “Pantheon Medicinae selectum, 
seu, Medicinae Templum in Libros XI. distinctum.” See 
Eloy Dies. Hist, de la Medecine. 
SAXONS, Land or Province of, in Transylvania, 
one of the three great divisions of that principality, forming 
the south part, adjacent to the frontier of Turkey. Its ter¬ 
ritorial extent is between 3000 and 4000 square miles ; its 
population 360,000. Their ancestors were invited into the 
country by Geisa II. king of Hungary, in the 12th century, 
and came chiefly from the borders of the Lower Rhine, 
which at that time were called Saxony. They retain their 
ancient language, customs and laws. Every Saxon is 
master of the land which he cultivates, and cannot alienate 
it to any but a Saxon. Their highest court is called the 
university, and consists of the count or governor of the 
province, and 22 representatives, viz., two from each of the 
eleven districts into which it is divided. The Saxons are not, 
however, confined to this part of Transylvania, many of 
them being found in the other divisions. They are almost 
all Lutherans. 
SAXONY, a name which, taken in its most comprehen¬ 
sive sense, denotes a very large track of country in the 
north of Germany, extending from the Weser on the west, 
to the frontier of Poland on the east. No term in geography 
O N Y. 
has been used with a greater latitude of signification—no 
states have been more subject to territorial change. The 
name of Saxons is first mentioned by Ptolemy, who de¬ 
scribes them, about the year 160, as a rude tribe, inha¬ 
biting Holstein and part of Jutland. They appear to have 
soon after advanced to the west and south, acquiring an 
extension of territory, partly by conquest, more by a pacific 
incorporation with the occupants of the country. About 
the end of the third century, the Saxons were considered 
entitled to rank with the two other great tribes of Germany, 
the Franks and Allemani; and on the migration of a part 
of the Franks into Gaul, in the 5th century, the Saxons 
acquired a farther extension of territory, viz., the country 
now forming the grand duchy of Oldenburg, with part of 
Hanover and Prussian Westphalia. It was soon alter this 
that the Britons, forsaken by their Roman defenders, cast 
their eyes on the Saxons for protection against the Scots and 
Piets. It was the small town of Engern, in Westphalia 
(in the circle or district of Minden), that had the honour of 
giving name to England, Engerland being progressively 
abridged into Engerland and England. Whether the 
Saxons received co-operation from the Angles (inhabitants 
of Angeln) in Jutland, is very questionable; but there 
seems no reasonable ground for doubting that the auxiliary 
corps demanded by the British, descended by the Lippe to 
the Rhine, and sailed not, as has been absurdly supposed, 
from Danish Zealand, but from Dutch Zealand, a far shorter 
and easier passage. After this expedition, which, feeble as 
were the numbers, is remarkable in so rude an age, little is 
known of the Saxons in Germany, except a gradual ac¬ 
quisition of territory from the Venedi (Wends or Vandals), 
who inhabited Brandenburg, Pomerania, and other parts of 
the north-east of Germany. When Charlemagne directed 
his arms to the right bank of the Rhine, he experienced a 
firm resistance from the Saxons, under Wittikind, who 
maintained the struggle during many years, but was at last 
obliged to submit. The conditions imposed by Charle¬ 
magne were the payment of an annual tribute, and the 
conversion to Christianity of the Saxons and their chief, on 
whom he conferred the title of duke of Saxony. The family 
of Wittikind, after ruling some time, was succeeded by that 
of Billuug, and afterwards by a branch of that of Guelf, 
which ruled in Bavaria. The 12th century was remarkable 
for a contest between the reigning duke Henry, surnamed 
“ the lion,” and the emperor. The electoral dignity was 
subsequently conferred on the Wittemberg line (of the house 
of Ascania), and, on its extinction, on the margraves of 
Meissen, from whom the present families of the house of 
Saxe are descended. 
The division of Germany into circles took place towards 
the close of the I5th century, and the large track of country 
known vaguely by the name of Saxony, was formed into 
three circles, Westphalia, Upper Saxony, and Lower Sax¬ 
ony. Upper Saxony might with more propriety have been 
styled Eastern Saxony, being bounded by Poland, Silesia, 
and Lusatia on the east, and by Bohemia and Franconia on 
the south. Its extent was great, about 43,000 square miles; 
its population about 4,000,000. It comprised the electorates 
of Saxony and Brandenburg, the duchy of Pomerania, and 
a number of small principalities. The name of Upper is 
to be understood as implying a surface not generally moun¬ 
tainous, but of such comparative elevation as to cause several 
rivers (the Elbe, Spree, and others) to flow to the west¬ 
ward towards Lower Saxony. That country, which might 
have been termed Western Saxony, had Westphalia and the 
Rhine to the west, and Sleswick, with the Baltic to the 
north. Its area contained 26,000 square miles, and com¬ 
prised the electorate of Hanover, the duchies of Mecklen¬ 
burg, Brunswick, and Holstein, the free towns of Hamburgh, 
Bremen, Lubeck, with a number of small states. In 1S06, 
the distinction of circles was finally abolished, and the names 
of Upper and Lower Saxony are now of use only for the 
elucidation of history. 
SAXONY, Kingdom of, is situated towards the north¬ 
east of Germany, and bounded on the south by Bohemia, 
and 
