348 STORK. 
STRAIN. 
grows to more than 12 in Britain. Its young | in successive years. It destroys snakes and other 
shoots have a reddish colour; its branches are 
numerous and slender, and are clothed with a 
smooth greyish bark; its wood is finely scented, 
and exudes a fragrant resin; its leaves stand on 
short footstalks without any regular order, some- 
times singly and sometimes in pairs, and are 
elliptical, pointed, entire or slightly waved, about 
2 inches long and 14 inch broad, lucid green in 
the upper surface, hoary in the under surface, 
and somewhat similar to those of the quince- 
tree; and its flowers come out in bunches of 
seven or eight from the sides of the branches, 
and have a large, monopetalous, funnel-shaped 
corolla, and emit a delightful fragrance, and 
bloom in July, but are not succeeded in Britain 
by any fruit. This plant does best to be raised 
from seed with the same appliances and care as 
a greenhouse plant; and becomes fit for taking 
its place in a final situation of the open ground 
when it is six or eight years old; and needs a 
dry soil of sandy loam and a warm and well 
sheltered spot; but it may be propagated also 
by layering. 
The resinous exudation of the officinal storax 
has a place in the materia medica under the 
name of storax balsam, and is used in several 
pharmaceutical compounds. It possesses some- 
what stimulating and expectorant properties, 
and was formerly prescribed rather freely in cases 
of catarrh, asthma, phthisis, and menstrual ob- 
struction; but it is now employed principally or 
solely as an adjunct on account of its fragrance. 
It is used also in the composition of pastilles. 
Two kinds of it occur in commerce,—the one in 
tears, which is pure,—and the other in lumps, 
which contains intermixtures of sawdust and 
other impurities; and both kinds are imported 
from the Levant, and are there obtained from 
artificial incisions in the bark of the tree. The 
balsam consists of resin, benzoic acid, and empy- 
reumatic oil; and has a reddish-brown colour, 
and a pleasant, aromatic, sub-acidulous, slightly 
pungent taste; and is brittle at the ordinary 
temperature of the atmosphere, and breaks with 
a shining, resinous fracture. See the articles 
BengAMIn-TREE, Benzorn, and PAsttL.e. 
STORE FARMER. See Pastorat Farm. 
STORK,—scientifically Crconta. A genus of 
large birds, of the cultrirostrous family of gralle. 
Their bill is thick and moderately cleft ; their 
mandibles are light and broad, and produce a 
clash by striking against each other; their legs 
are reticulated; and their anterior toes, parti- 
cularly the external ones, are strongly palmated 
at the base.—The white stork, Ciconia alba, some- 
times though rarely visits England, but is more 
common in France, and passes the winter in 
several countries of Africa. Its total length is 
about 35 feet; its general plumage is white; its 
wing-quills are black; and its bill and feet are 
red. It builds its nest on towers, steeples, and 
similar situations, and returns to the same spot 
noxious reptiles, and is greatly venerated on the 
Continent.—The black stork, Ciconia nigra, is 
also an occasional yet rare visitant of England. 
Tts total length is about 3 feet 4 inches; its 
general plumage is blackish, with purple reflec- 
tions; and its belly is white. It frequents soli- 
tary marshes, and builds in forests. 
STORK’S BILL. See Prtarconium. 
STOT. A steer or young bullock. 
STOVE. A horticultural building for the pro- 
tection and culture of tropical plants. See the 
article HorHovse. 
STOVEN. A shoot from the stool of a fallen 
tree. 
STOVER. Fodder from the straw and chaff 
of thrashed corn. 
STOWK. The handle of a pail. 
STOWRE. A round of a ladder, a hedge-stake, 
or a stave in the side of a waggon. 
STRAIN, or Sprain. A rupture of the cellu- 
lar tissue and minute nerves of membranes, liga- 
ments, or muscles. Strains frequently occur in 
horses,—and much more frequently in those who 
make sudden and violent exertions than in those 
who perform only slow and steady work. They do 
not, as is commonly supposed, consist in exten- 
sions of ligaments, but are ruptures of minute 
cells and vessels, followed by inflammation and 
swelling. In all kinds and degrees of them, rest 
is a grand and essential remedy; in moderate 
ones, embrocations and bandages are usually ser- 
viceable ; and in very severe ones, bleeding, blis- 
tering, and opening medicine are sometimes ne- 
cessary. 
A very bad kind of strain to which horses are 
subject is noticed in the article Bacx-Sinrws.— 
A strain in a horse’s shoulder is indicated by his 
extending the limb with difficulty, inclining it a 
little outward, and carrying his head and neck a 
little to the one side. An ordinary case of it may 
require bleeding, the administration of opening 
medicine, the placing of a rowel in the chest, and 
the rubbing of the whole shoulder two or three 
times a day with ammoniated soap liniment or 
some similar embrocation; and a bad and stub- 
born case of it, which does not yield to these re- 
medies and to a long continued rest, and which 
seems to involve a permanent contraction of the 
muscles, may possibly be alleviated by means of 
frequent swimming.—A strain in the muscles of 
the back sometimes accompanies ossification of 
the vertebral ligaments, and should be treated 
with bleeding, laxatives, stimulating embroca- 
tion, and the use of a fresh sheep’s skin on the 
back. See the article AncHytosis.—A strain of 
the hip joint, though often identified by ignorant 
persons with almost every kind of obscure lame- 
ness in the hinder parts of the horse, is really of 
rare occurrence; and when it does happen, it 
may yield to rest and an extensive blister, but is 
more likely to prove incurable.—A strain of the 
stifle joint is indicated by swelling and tender- 
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