SPATHOGLOTTIS. 
was intreduced to Britain in 1816, and possesses 
high consideration in its native country. The 
juice of its leaves is given in mixture with lime 
juice as a remedy in maniacal cases; the infu- 
sion of its pleasant-tasted root is used as a cool- 
ing drink in fevers; and its beautiful, fragrant, 
purple-coloured or reddish flowers are woven into 
garlands, and presented at the shrines of the 
Hindoo idols. 
SPATHOGLOTTIS. A recently discovered 
genus of ornamental, exotic plants, of the orchis 
order. Fortune’s species, S. fortunz, was intro- 
duced a few years ago to Britain from the gra- 
nite mountains of Hong-Kong; and is a dwarf, 
terrestrial-rooting plant, of considerable beauty. 
Its bulb or corm lies dormant for some months 
after the foliage has decayed; its leaves are 
plaited, lance-shaped, and two in number, and | 
grow up from the root-crown ; and its stem rises 
by the side of the leaves, and attains a height of 
about a foot, and bears four or five pale yellow 
flowers,—the sepals and petals of which are 
ovate, the lip divided, the side lobes blotched 
with crimson, and the middle lobe cuneate. 
SPAVIN. A threefold disease in horses. See 
the articles Bueop-Spavin, Boc-Spavin, and Bonz- 
SPAVIN. 
SPAYING. The destroying of the ovaries of 
heifers, bitches, young sows, and other female 
animals, in order to prevent conception and to | 
promote fattening. It is usually done by mak- 
ing an incision into the mid-flank on the left 
side with a lancet or sharp knife, cutting off the 
ovary, and stitching up the wound. The part 
should be so dressed as to exclude the air; and 
the animal should be kept warm and quiet for 
two or three days after the operation. The spay- 
ing of heifers is practised far less now than for- 
merly,—not on account of any failure of its ob- 
ject, but because the great improvement in the 
breeds of cattle has correspondingly enhanced the : 
| value of breeding cows. 
SPEARMINT, —botanically Mentha viridis. 
An indigenous, culinary, and medicinal herb, of 
the mint genus and labiate order. It grows 
wild in marshy places. Its root is perennial and 
creeping ; its stem is quadrangular, leafy, erect, 
smooth, branching, and about two feet high ; its 
leaves are opposite, nearly sessile, lanceolate, 
| pointed, serrated, smooth, deep green above, 
| pale and sometimes a little hairy below, about 
| 25 inches long and 1 inch broad ; and its flowers 
grow in long, pointed, panicled spikes, on smooth 
| partial footstalks, and have a smooth, tender, 
funnel-shaped, purple-coloured corolla, and bloom 
in August. This plant has a strong aromatic 
odour, and a warm and slightly bitter taste; and 
it retains these properties after being dried, 
and yields them to both alcohol and water. It 
acts as a stomachic and a carminative; and is 
used both in culinary preparations and in medi- 
cine. Its herbage is cut green for making 
sauces ; its herbage is cut just as the flowers ap- 
SPECIES. 295 
pear, to be dried for medicinal purposes; and the 
whole plant is cut when in full flower, to yield 
the essential oil of spearmint,—and this oil has 
a flavour similar to that of peppermint, and is 
used medicinally for the same purpeses, but is 
less pungent and less grateful. An infusion of 
the dried herb is serviceable in allaying sickness 
and vomiting occasioned by weakness of the 
stomach. The plant is propagated in kitchen 
gardens by parting the roots in spring and 
autumn, by removing and transplanting young 
offset plants in March and April, and by cutting 
off the stalks in summer. 
SPEARWORT. See Crowroor. 
SPECIES. There are several considerations 
which clearly establish the important fact that 
species have a real existence in Nature ; that 
certain forms have been assigned to each animal 
from the origin of things; and that although 
the animals are liable to diverge from their pri- 
mitive forms, they always possess a preservative 
tendency, a risus formativus, and are ever ready 
to revert to the original type when the external 
causes of change are removed. The entire ani- 
mal kingdom is divided into a number of distinct 
species, each of which perpetuates its own form, 
| without ever transgressing certain limits, or ac- 
quiring the characters of another species. 
In all the varieties observed to arise among 
the mammalia, the form of the bones preserves a 
remarkable stability, which would not always be 
expected from the appearance of the external 
parts. The Baron Cuvier compared the skulls of 
foxes from the North of Europe and from Egypt 
with those of France and with each other, yet 
he found no other differences than such as might 
distinguish one individual from another. The ant- 
lers of the rein-deer and stags often vary in size, 
and the same may happen with the tusks of the 
elephant ; but two individuals of any one of these 
species, however dissimilar they may be in size, 
do not exhibit the slightest difference in the num- 
ber of their teeth, or the articulations of their 
smallest bones. This is also observed with the 
domestic cattle, which may be destitute of horns, 
or have them of variable length, and yet they 
possess an exact correspondence in all the other 
parts of the skeleton. Thus the forms of the bones 
in general vary but little ; while their modes of 
connexion, their articulations, and the form of 
the great molar teeth, remain constantly the 
same in each species. The divided hoof of the 
hog sometimes becomes consolidated, and this 
may be regarded as the extreme limit of va- 
riation among the bones of our domestic herbi- 
vorous animals. The variations of the bones in 
the different kinds of dog have undergone a 
special examination by M. Frederic Cuvier, per- 
formed at the request of his brother upon the 
specimens at the ‘ Museum d’Histoire Naturelle.’ 
To enter fully into the details of this investiga- 
tion would at present be out of place. It will 
suffice here to mention, that a general corre- 
