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SPIGELIA, Worm-grass ; in botany, a genus of plants ofthe class pentandria, and order monogynia ; natural order Stellut:e.Corolla funnel-shaped ; capsule didymous, bilocular, and poiy-spermous. There are two species.

S. Akthelmia lias a herbaceous stem, and its highest leaves are•fourfold. “ The effects of this medicine (says Dr. Browne) arethese. It first procures sleep, almost as certainly, and in an equaldegree, with opium ; the eyes seem to distend, and sparkle as itwere before the eruption of the small-pox or measles, w hich maybe easily observed after the sleep is over; the pulse grows regularand rises, the fever cools, the symptoms appear more favourable,and the worms are generally discharged by the use of the subse-quent purgatives (if not before) in great quantities, often above100 at a time; but when a few only come away, which is seldom,and these alive, the same doses are again repeated, which seldom-or never fail. 1 never saw this medicine fad when there was theleast probability of success; nay, often prove successful whenthere was not the least reason to expect it. 1 have been, however,cautions in ordering it for children ; for though I never knew it at• all hurtful, its effect upon the eyes has often deterred me from or-dering it tocliildrcn, whose fibres are weak and relaxed, and inwhom tlie fevers from this source are seldom so vehement, as to■hinder the administration of other medicines, likely as effectualin other cases of this nature. This plant is generally had in low-dry lands, after they have been turned up some months, and aftergreat rains; its taste is herbaceous, and somewhat clammy, itsrowth is soft and sudden, its stalk hollow, smooth, and roundish,ts herbaceous taste and sudden growth would alone make methink it capable of little or no action, had not hundreds of carefulobservationssatislied me to the contrary.” See Plate UXX1X.

SPlGELIUfi, Adrian, an eminent anatomist, surgeon, and.botanist, born at Brussels in 1578. lie became professor of ana-tomy and surgery at Padua. The Senate of Venice honoured himwith the order of St. Mark. He died in iG25. His works on tln-se.brandies of science were printed at Amsterdam , in three vols folio,1645.

SPTGNA, or SPfGNO, a town and castle, and late marqui-sate of Italy , in the late duchv of Montferrat; 40 miles S. E. oiTurin . Lon. 8. 2 ( 5 . 1 ). Lat. 44. 45. N .

SPIKE, OIL OK, an essential oil distilled from lavender,and much used by the varnish-makers and the painters in.enamel.

SPIKENARD. SeeNARrvs.

SPIKING UP Til E ORDNANCE, a sea-phrase, used forfastening a quoin with spikes to the deck close to the breech of thecarriages of great guns, that they may keep close and firm to (lieship’s sides, and not get loose when the ship rolls, and by thatmeans endanger the breaking out of a butt-head of a plank.

SPI LAN l HUS, in botany, a genus of plants belonging to (lieclass of syngenesia, and order polygamia aiqualis. Calyx almostequal ; down two-toothed ; receptacle conical, chaffy. There arenine species. This genus is made up cbietlv of those species ofbidens and verbesina which do not properly belong to those ge-nera; they are natives of the East and West Indies .

SP1LSBY, a town of England, in Lincolnshire, 16 miles N. ofBoston , 30 E. of Lincoln. Lon. 0. 7. E. Lat. 53. 12. N.

SPINA, Thorn ; in botany, a species of offensive weapon,protruded from the wood of the plant, and which is therefore of astronger and harder nature than prickles, which are detached por-tions of the bark.

SPINA VENTOSA, in surgery, that species of corruption offlie bones which takes its rise in the internal parts, and by degreesenlarges the bone, and raises it into a tumor. See Surgery.

SPINACIA , Spinage ; in botany, a genus of plants belongingto the class dicecia, and order pentaiulria ; natural order, Iloloracea’.Male, calyx live-parted ; corolla none: female, calyx tour-cleft;corolla none ; styles four; seed one, within the hardened calyx.There are two species; viz. S. oleracea, garden-spinach ; ami S..fera, wild spinach. There are also two varieties.

SPIN.E, in botany, thorns, rigid prickles; a species of arma,growing on various parts of certain plants for their defence ; spina-ramorum arcent pecora. On the brandies we find examples inthe pvrus, prunes, citrus, hippophaes, gmelina, rliamnus, lycium,&o. on the leaves in the aloe, agave, yucca, iox, hippomane,theophrasta, carlina, &c. on the calyx, in the carduus, emeus,

| centaurea, moluccelUi, galeopsis, &c, on the fruit, in the trapa,tribulus, murex, spitiacia, agrimonia, datura, &c.

SPINDLE, in geometry, a solid body generated by the re-volution of some curve-line about its base or double ordinate ; inopposition to a conoid, which is generated by the rotation of thecurve above its axis or absciss, perpendicular to its ordinate. Thespindle is denominated circular, elliptic, hyperbolic, or parabolic,ic. according to the figure of its generating curve.

bt’iKiii.E, iu mechanics, sometimes denotes the axis of a wheel,or roller, &c. and its ends are the pivots.

SPINE. See Anatomy.

SPINELLE, in mineralogy-, a species of the flint-genus: itsprincipal colour is ;ed, Irom which it passes on the one side intoblue, and vv n into green, on the other Into yellow and brown.Its colours ai e mostly deep, and they have always a shade of black.Sometimes, it is enveloped in an opaline crust; sometimes it ex-hibits an opalescent iridescence.

SP1NEP, orSPINNET, a musical instrument ranked in thesecond or third place among harmonious instruments. It consistsof a chest or belly made of the most porous and resinous wood tobe found and a ta’b.e of fir glued on slips of wood called summers,which bear on die sides.

yi’lNlEEX, in botany, a genus of plants belonging to theclass polygamia , and order nioneecia. Hermaphrodite flowershave a calyx with bivnlved billorous glumes, valvelets parallel tothe racliis ; corolla bivalvcd, awnless. There is only -onespecies.

SPINNING, in commerce, the act or art of reducing silk, flax,hemp, wool, hair, or other matters, into thread. Spinning iseither pertonued on the wheel or with a distaff and spindle, orwnli other mariners proper for the several kinds of working.Hemp, flax, in-ttle-lhread, and other like vegetable matters, areto lie welted in spuming; silks, wools, &c. are spun dry, and donot need water: yet iliere is a way of spinning or reeling silk as itconies off the cases or balls, where hot and even boiling water is tobe med. The vast variety, and tiie importance of those branchesol our mamilactures, which are produced from cotton, wool, andflax, spun into yarn, together with the cheapness of prov sions, andtlie low price ol labour in many foreign countries, which are ourrivals in trade, have occasioned many attempts at home to renderspinning more easy, cheap, and expeditious. ,

SPINOZA, Benedict, was born at Amsterdam the 24th No-vember 1632. His father was a Jew of Portugal , by profession amerchant. After being taught Latin by a physician, lie studiedtheology, and afterwards devoted himselt to philosophy. He be-gan very early to be dissatisfied with tlie Jewish religion ; and ashis temper was open, lie did not conceal his doubts from the syna-gogue. Tlie Jews, it is said, offered to tolerate his infidelity, andeven promised him a pension of 1000 dollars a-year, if he wouldremain in their society, and continue outwardly to practise theirceremonies. But if this oiler was really made, he rejected it, fronthis aversion to hypocrisy, or because he could not endure the re-straint which it would have imposed. He also refused tlie legacyof a very considerable fortune, to tlie prejudice of the natural lieit'S 5and be learned tlie art of polishing glass for spectacles that h®might subsist independently of every one. An accident hastenedhis leaving the synagogue. As lie was returning home one even-ing from the theatre, lie was stabbed by a Jew ; the wound "'. a ?slight; but the attempt led Spinoza to conclude that tlie Jews haformed the design of assassinating him. He then became a ChrjS'tian, ami frequented the churches of the Lutherans and Calvinists. He now devoted himself more than ever to his philosophycal speculations; and being often interrupted by his triends, hleft Amsterdam , and settled at tlie Hague, where lie sometinj®*continued for months together without ever stirring from his lo ( K.ing. His “ Traclalus Tlieologico politicos” was published ab?hthis time, a book containing all those doctrines in embryo, .a,were afterwards unfolded in his “ Opera Postluuna,” and " 11 ^are considered as a system of atheism. Ills fame, which ha 1 ' IP. ,spread far and wide, obliged him sometimes to interrupt his pb*sophieal reveries. Learned men visited him from all qu arl ®GWhile tlie prince of Coiule commanded the French army.Utrecht , lie liitreatcd Spinosu to visit him ; and though he was jsent when the philosopher arrived, he returned immediately. ® jspent a considerable time with him. The elector Palatine oil