S C A 
743 
S C A 
I spoke Of most disastrous chances, 
Of hair-breadth scapes in th’ imminent deadly breach. 
Shakspeare. 
Means of escape; evasion. 
Having purpos’d falsehood, you 
Can have no way but falsehood to be true J 
Vain lunatick, against these scapes I could 
Dispute, and conquer, if I would. Donne. 
' Negligent freak ; deviation from regularity. 
No natural exhalation in the sky. 
No scape of nature, no distemper’d day. 
But they will pluck away it’s nat’ral cause. 
And call them meteors, prodigies, and signs. Shakspeare. 
Loose act of vice or lewdness.—A bearne! a very pretty 
bearne! sure some scape: though I am not bookish, yet I 
can read waiting-gentlewoman in the scape. Shakspeare. 
SCAPE-GOAT, in the Jewish Antiquities, the goat which 
was set at liberty on the day of solemn expiation. For the 
ceremonies on this occasion, see Levit. xvi. 5, 6, &c. 
Some say that a piece of scarlet cloth, in form of a tongue, 
was tied on the forehead of the scape-goat. Hofm. Lex. 
univ. in voc. Lingua. 
The word is now applied to a runaway, or dissolute fellow; 
or more commonly to one who becomes a locum tenens for 
another in a disagreeable affair. 
SCAPEMENT, or Escapement. See Horology. 
SCAPHA, in Anatomy, one of the small hollows of the 
external ear. See Ear, in Anatomy. 
SCAPHA, in Surgery, sometimes denotes a double-headed 
roller. 
SCAPHEPHORI, [2 Katprtfogtn, Gr.] Among; the Athe¬ 
nians, an appellation given to the strangers residing among 
them, because they were obliged, at the festival Panathense, 
to carry little ships, called scaphce, CKctpai, which were a 
sign of their foreign extraction. 
SCAPHISM, Scaphismus, [formed of c-Kcupoc;, digging; 
of VKoniTu, 1 dig;] in Antiquity, a kind of torture or 
punishment formerly in use among the Persians. It con¬ 
sisted in locking the criminal close up within the trunk of 
a tree bored to the dimensions of his body, only with five 
holes for his head, arms, and legs to come through. In this 
state he was exposed to the sun, and the parts thus appear¬ 
ing, were anointed with honey and milk, to invite the wasps 
and flies. 
The invention is ascribed to Parisatis, queen of Persia, 
. and mother of Artaxerxes Mnemon, and the young Cyrus. 
It is added, she first ordered it to be practised on the person 
who brought the tidings of the death of Cyrus. 
SCAPHIUM, among the Romans, a cup of an oblong 
form, somewhat resembling that of a boat; whence, also, it 
had its name. 
Schaphium likewise signifies a kind of dial, which, beside 
the hours, shewed also the solstices and equinoxes. 
SCAPHOIDES [from the Gr. crnatpa, a boat, and eiSo? 
form,'] boat-like; the name of a bone of the carpus, and of 
the tarsus. 
SCAPOLITE, in Mineralogy, Paranthine of Haiiy. 
This mineral has only been found near Arendal in Norway. 
Its colour is a greyish, greenish, or yellowish-white. It is 
commonly crystallized in single or laterally aggregated 
needles; the form either long, four-sided or eight-sided prisms. 
The crystals are often decomposed; sometimes they are 
translucent, and have a metallic or nacry splendour. In the 
last state they are sufficiently hard to scratch glass; in the 
former state they are soft and even friable. Before the blow¬ 
pipe it intumesces, and forms a shining white enamel. The 
crystals are not electric by heat, and do not gelatinize with 
acids. The specific gravity of scapolite is 3.712. The pri¬ 
mitive form of the crystal, according to Haiiy, is a rectan- 
S ilar prism, terminated by square planes, which divide 
stinctly in the direction of the diagonal. Scapolite con¬ 
tains, 
According to Langier. According to Simon. 
Silex... 
..45 . 
.53 
Alumine .... 
..33 . 
. 15 
Lime ....... 
.. 17.6....... 
Magnesia .... 
Oxyd of iron. 
.. 1 .. 
...... 6.5 
Soda........ 
.. 1.5. 
___ 3 .7 
Potash. 
SCA'PULA, s. [Lat.] The shoulder-blade.—The heat 
went off from the parts, and spread up higher to the breast 
and scapula. Wiseman. 
SCAPULA (John), the reputed author of a Greek Lexicon, 
that has long been esteemed a work of superior merit, studied 
at Lausanne. His name is recorded in the annals of litera¬ 
ture, says his biographer, neither on account of his talents, 
nor industry, but for a gross act of disingenuity and fraud, 
which he committed against an eminent literary character 
of the sixteenth century. Being employed by Henry Ste- 
hens as the corrector to his press, while he was printing 
is “Thesaurus Linguae Graecae,” Scapula extracted those 
words, with their explications, &c., which he reckoned most 
useful, comprised them in one volume, and published them 
as an original work, with his own name. 
SCAPULAR, or Scapulary, denotes part of the habit 
of several orders of religions, worn over the gown, as a 
badge of peculiar veneration for the Virgin. 
The word is formed from the French, scapulaire, which 
signifies the same; and that from the Latin scapula, the 
shoulder-blade. 
The scapular consists of two narrow breadths, or slips, of 
cloth, covering the back and the breasts, and hanging.down 
to the feet of the professed religious, and to the knees of the 
lay-brothers, &c. 
There is also a Friery, or Fraternity of the Scapular, 
consisting of lay-brothers, who profess a particular devotion 
to the Virgin; and who, in honour of her, wear a little 
scapular, in manner of a bracelet, or otherwise, for repre¬ 
senting the great one. They are obliged to repeat certain 
prayers, and to observe certain rules in their manner of life. 
SCA'PULARY, s. [pcapulape. Sax. scapulaire, Fr.] 
Part of the habit of a friar, consisting of two narrow slips of 
cloth covering the back and the breast.—What betokeneth 
your grete hode, your scaplerie, your knotted girdle, and 
your wide cope ? Chaucer. 
SCAPUS, in Architecture, the fust, or shaft, of a column. 
SCAPUS, in Botany, is a flower-stalk springing imme¬ 
diately from the root, as in the primrose, cowslip, snow¬ 
drop, daffodil, cyclamen, &c. It is designed for the support 
of the parts of fructification only, and withers when they 
have accomplished their destination. Linnaeus thought that 
no plant could be increased by its scapus; but Sir J. Smith 
has raised plants of Lachenalia tricolor from bulbs formed 
on a flower-stalk laid between papers to dry. 
SCAR, s. [from eschar, Fr.; ea-^apas, Gr. Dr. Johnson. 
—Su. Goth, skaera, scissura, skora, incidere, skaera, se¬ 
cure. Sercnius. The past participle of pcipan, Sax. to shear, 
to cut, to divide. Todd.}—-A mark made by a knife or fire; 
a cicatrix.—A cliff of a rock, or a naked rock on the dry 
land. In the Lancashire dialect, it is a steep, rocky, and 
bare place in hills; and in some parts of the north, a broken 
place in the high bank of a river, which is a very old expres¬ 
sion. [Ray derives this word from the Sax. capp, a rock. 
Horne Tooke says it is the past participle of jxipan, to shear, 
to separate. In the Gael, sceir is a sharp sea rock. Shaw. 
The Su. Goth, skaer, Icel. slcer, also signify a rock.] 
And eke full oft a little share 
Upon a bank, or men be ware, 
Let[s] in the stream, which with great paine 
If any man it shall restraine. Gower. 
Scar, in every part of England where rocks abound, is 
known to signify the detached protrusion of a large rock. 
Henley. 
To 
