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S I L 
S I L 
SULKWORM, s. The worm that spins silk. 
Broad were the banners, and of snowy hue, 
A purer web the silk-worm never drew. Dri/den. 
SILK-WORM, or Bombyx. Thisinsect, a species of the 
Phaljena, (the P. Mori,) consists of eleven rings, and 
each of these of a great number of other small ones, joined 
to each other; and the head, which terminates these rings, 
is furnished with two jaws, which work and cut the food, 
not by a perpendicular but a lateral action. 
The humours found in the body of this creature all seem 
approaching to the nature of the silk which it spins; for 
on being rubbed in the hands, they leave a hard or solid 
crust behind them. Under the skin there is always found a 
mucous rosy-coloured membrane, enveloping the animal, 
and supposed to be the new skin in which it is to appear, on 
throwing off the old one. The heart of this creature reaches 
from the head to the tail, running the whole length of the 
body; it is, indeed, rather a series of many hearts connected 
together, than one: the motion of systole and diastole is very 
evident in this whole chaiD of hearts; and it is an elegant 
sight to observe the manner of the vital fluid’s passing from 
one of them to the other. The stomach of this animal is as 
long as the heart, reaching, like it, from one end of the body 
to the other. This large receptacle for food, and the sud¬ 
den passage of it through the animal, are very good reasons 
for its great voracity. 
In the sides of the belly, all about the ventricle, there is 
deposited a vast number of vessels, which contain the silky 
juice: these run with various windings and meanders to the 
mouth, and are so disposed, that the creatures can discharge 
their contents at pleasure at the mouth; and, according to 
the nature of the juices that they are supplied with, furnish 
different sorts of silk from them, all the fluid contents of 
these vessels hardening in the air into that sort of thread, of 
which we find the web or balls of this creature consist. 
These creatures never are offended at any stench, of what¬ 
ever kind; but they always feel a southern wind, and an 
extremely hot air always makes them sick. Malpighi de 
Bombyce. 
SULKY, adj. Made of silk.—In silky folds each nervous 
limb disguise. Shenstone. —Soft; tender. Dr. Johnson 
has noticed silky as tender, only in the sense of pliant, by 
a citation from Shakspeare’s Dear, where the true word is 
“ silly ducking observants,” not silky. 
Silky soft 
Favonius breathe still softer. Young. 
SILL, s. [pile, Sax.] The timber or stone at the foot of 
the door.—He can scarce lift his leg over a sill. Burton. 
The farmer’s goose. 
Grown fat with corn and sitting still. 
Can scarce get o’er the barn-door sill : 
And hardly waddles forth. Swift. 
The bottom piece in a window frame Shafts of a wag¬ 
gon ; thills. 
SILLA, a large town of Bambarra, in Central Africa, 
situated on the southern bank of the Niger, only two days 
journey above Jenno. Here Mr. Park was obliged to ter¬ 
minate his first journey, after having penetrated 1090 miles 
in a direct line east from Cape Verd. Lat. 14. 48. N. long. 
1. 34. W. 
SILLA POINT, a cape on the north-west coast of the 
island of Mindanao. Lat. 9. N. long. 123. 51. E. 
SILLA DE CARACCAS, an elevated peak of that chain 
of the Andes which stretches across the country of the 
Caraccas. It is in the vicinity of the city of Caraccas, which 
raises itself to the height of 8420 feet, and forms an enor¬ 
mous and frightful precipiece fronting the Carribean sea. 
Lat. 10. 31. 15. long. 74. 40. 55. W. 
S1LLABAR, or Cf.llabar, a sea-port’town on the west 
coast of the island of Sumatra, with a good and safe harbour; 
30 miles south-south-east of Bencoolen. 
SULLABUB, s. Curds made by milking upon vinegar. 
This is Dr. Johnson’s definition, in conformity to his deriva¬ 
tion of the word; which after all is very obscure. A silla¬ 
bub usually means a liquor made of milk and wine or cider, 
and sugar. 
Joan takes her neat rubb’d pail, and now 
She strips to milk the sand-red cow; 
Where, for some sturdy foot-ball swain, 
Joan strokes a sillabub or twain. Wotton. 
SILLAH MEW, a considerable town of the Birman 
empire, situated on the eastern bank of the river Irrawuddv. 
The houses are all built of wood, and raised several feet from 
the ground; but there are several handsome temples built of 
brick, dedicated to Godama or Boodh. It has a consider¬ 
able manufacture of silk,' tartans, &c. The raw material is 
chiefly brought from Yunan, the south-west province of 
China. The colours are bright and beautiful, and the 
texture very strong. But not the least remarkable circum¬ 
stance in this manufacture is, that the weavers are all 
women, the men considering such employment as beneath 
their dignity. Lat. 20. 50. N. long. 94. 30. E. 
SILLE LE GUILLAUME, a small town of the interior 
of France, department of the Sarthe, near th'e source of 
the Vegre. It has manufactures of linen, and in the neigh¬ 
bourhood, iron mines. Population 2000. 
SILLEE, the capital of a small district of the same name 
in Bengal. Lat. 23. 22. N. long. 85. 56. E. 
SILLERY, a seigniory of Lower Canada, in the country 
of Quebec. 
. SILLEYRO, a promontory of Spain, on the west coast 
of Galicia. Lat. 42. 7. N. long. 8. 54. W. 
SILLIAN, a neat town of Austria, in Tyrol, on the 
Drave; 60 miles east-south-east of Inspruck. 
SULLILY, ado. In a silly manner; simply; foolishly. 
I wonder much, what thou and I 
Did till we lov’d ? were we not wean’d till then. 
But suck’d on childish pleasures sillily ? 
Or slumber’d we in the seven sleepers’ den ? Bonne. 
SULLINESS, s. Simplicity; weakness; harmless folly) 
—The silliness of the person does not derogate from the 
dignity of his character. L'Estrange. 
SILLON, in Fortification, an elevation of earth, made in 
the middle of the moat, to fortify it, when too broad. 
The sillon is more usually denominated an envelope. 
SILLS, in Agriculture, a term signifying the shafts of a 
cart, waggon, &c. 
SULLY, adj. [Dr. Johnson merely cites the German selig, 
from Skinner. Our word scely or sely, at first meaning 
fortunate, also was used for silly, simple, inoffensive.] 
Harmless ; innocent; inoffensive; plain ; artless.—There 
was a fourth man in a silly habit. Shakspeare. —Weak ; 
helpless. 
After long storms, 
In dread of death and dangerous dismay. 
With which my silly bark was tossed sore, 
I do at length descry the happy shore. Spenser. 
Foolish; witless. 
Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep. 
Was that which did their silly thoughts so busy keep. 
Milton. 
Weak; disordered; not in health.—“You look main silly 
to day, i e. you look ill in health.” Pegge. 
SILLY, a small town of the Netherlands, in the province 
of Hainault, with 2000 inhabitants. It has some breweries 
and distilleries. 
SULLYHOW, s. [Perhaps from pelij, happy, and 
heojx, the head. Dr. Johnson.'] The membrane that 
covers the head of the foetus.—Great conceits are raised of 
the membranous covering called the sillyhow, sometimes 
found about the heads of children upon their birth. 
Brown. 
SILONG, a city of China, of the second rank, in Quang- 
see. Lat. 24. 34. N. long. 105. 18. E. 
SILOS, 
