Home >> Encyclopedia-britannica-volume-20-sarsaparilla-sorcery >> Snakes to Sokotra

Encyclopedia Britannica

Snakes
Snakes, An Order (ophidia) In The Class Of Reptiles (q.v.). They Are Elongate Animals Without Limbs, Or With But Claw-like Rudiments Of The Hinder Pair; Without Eyelids Or External Ears, With Pointed Re-curved Teeth Fused To The Supporting Bones, With A Forked Slender Tongue Which Can Be Withdrawn Into A ...

Snipe
Snipe, One Of The Commonest Wading Birds, In High Repute Both With The Sportsman And Epicure. The Common Snipe (capella Gallinago) Breeds In Marshes All Over Europe And Northern Asia, Moving South In Hard Weather. It Feeds Upon Worms, Etc. Which It Obtains By Probing The Ground With Its Long ...

Snow
Snow, The Water Vapour In The Air Crystallized Into Geo Metrical Forms. Snow Forms Usually Within, Below Or Between Cloud Strata, And At Various Heights Within The Atmosphere, According To The Latitude And The Temperature Prevailing Within The Clouds. Snow Forms In Great Quantities Within Lofty Clouds In All Latitudes. ...

Snow Leopard Or Ounce
Snow-leopard Or Ounce (felis Uncia), A Large Member Of The Cat Family, From The High Mountain Regions Of Central Asia. It Resembles The Leopard In General Conformation, But Has Longer Fur, Grey In Col Our, Marked With Large Dark Ro Settes. The Head And Body Are About 4f T. 4in. ...

Snow Plough
Snow Plough. A Contrivance For Clearing Rail Tracks Of Snow. The Oldest And Most Common Form Is The Wedge Plough, With A Sharp Prow. The Rotary Plough Is The Most Powerful Machine. It Burrows Into The Drifts After The Manner Of An Auger, And Whirls The Snow Clear Of The ...

Soap
Soap, A Chemical Compound, Or Mixture Of Chemical Com Pounds, Resulting From The Interaction Of Fatty Oils And Fats With Alkalis, I.e., The Salts Of The Fatty Acids. In A Scientific Definition, The Compounds Of Fatty Acids With Basic Metallic Oxides, Lime, Magnesia, Lead Oxide, Etc., Should Also Be Included ...

Sobat
Sobat, A River Of North-east Africa, The Most Southerly Of The Great Eastern Affluents Of The Nile. It Is Formed By The Junction Of Various Streams Which Rise In The South-west Of The Abyssinian Highlands And North-west Of Lake Rudolf. The Length Of The Sobat, Reckoning From The Source Of ...

Socage
Socage. A Free Tenement Held In Fee Simple By Services Of An Economic Kind, Such As The Payment Of Rent Or The Performance Of Some Agricultural Work, Was Termed In Mediaeval English Law A Socage Tenement. In A Borough A Similar Holding Was Called A Burgage Tenement. The Term Is ...

Social Anthropology
Social Anthropology. Anthropology Is The Science Of Man And Of His Culture At Various Levels Of Development. It Includes The Study Of The Human Frame, Of Racial Distinctions, Of Civilisation, Of Social Structure And Of Man's Mental Reactions To His Environment. The Problems Connected With The Human Body, Such As ...

Social Anthropology As A
Social Anthropology As A Science During The Last Quarter Of The Preceding Century And At The Beginning Of This, Social Anthropology Gradually Crystallised Into A Scientific Study. The Specific Nature Of Cultural Process Was Recognised, As Well As The Complexity Of Social Organisation And Of Primitive Custom And Belief. The ...

Social Contract
Social Contract. In Political Philosophy, A Term Applied To The Theory Of The Origin Of Society Associated Chiefly With The Names Of Hobbes, Locke And Rousseau, Though It Can Be Traced Back To The Greek Sophists. According To Hobbes (leviathan), Men Lived Originally In A State Of Nature In Which ...

Social Hygiene
Social Hygiene. Although, Strictly, Social Hygiene Should Deal Broadly With All Aspects Of Hygiene In A Narrower Sense Than General Hygiene Which Is The Duty Of The State And In A Broader Sense Than Personal Hygiene Which Is The Duty Of The Individual, The Term, At The Present Time, Is ...

Social Insects
Social Insects Social Wasps.—it Will Be Convenient To Discuss The Social Wasps First Because They Are Of Special Interest In Illustrating The Evolution Of Social Behaviour. Collectively Wasps (q.v.) Form An Extensive Group Numbering Over Io,000 Species, The Vast Majority Being Solitary In Habit. The Social Wasps, Which Alone Concern ...

Social Security
Social Security. The Federal Security Agency In The United States Embraces Five Organizations Concerned With Social Legislation. These Member-agencies—social Security Board, Pub Lic Health Service, Office Of Education, Civilian Conservation Corps, And National Youth Administration—were Brought To Gether Under The New Office Of Federal Security Administrator By The President's Reorganization ...

Social Security Act Of
Social Security Act Of 1935 The Social Security Act Of 1935 Initiated One Of The Most Compre Hensive Programs For Social Welfare Ever Undertaken Through Direct Legislation. It Established A Federal Old-age Insurance System ; Made Provision For Federal Co-operation With The States In Unemployment Insurance Systems And In Programs ...

Social Service
Social Service. The Term Social Service Has A Some What Different Meaning In Great Britain And America. The Term Social Service Is A Comparatively New One In Great Britain. If It Had Been Used Previous To The Loth Century It Would Have Meant Philanthropy And Charity In The Ordinary Sense. ...

Socialism
Socialism Is The Name Given Both To A Widespread Body Of Doctrines And To A World-wide Movement Taking Many Different Forms. It Has A Long History Behind It ; And The Word Has Been Used In Shifting Senses As The Ideas Behind It Have Developed And The Situations Facing It ...

Socialism Principles And Outlook
Socialism: Principles And Outlook. Social Ism, Reduced To Its Simplest Legal And Practical Expression, Means The Complete Discarding Of The Institution Of Private Property By Transforming It Into Public Property And The Di Vision Of The Resultant Public Income Equally And Indiscrimi Nately Among The Entire Population. Thus It Reverses ...

Societa Triestina Di Navigazione
Societa Triestina Di Navigazione Cosu Lich. Founded In 1903 By The Brothers Callisto And Alberto Cosulich, Whose Activities Were For A Long Time Devoted To Ship Building, The Societa Triestina Di Navigazione Cosulich Rapidly Established Itself In The Maritime World, And In The Short Period Of Ten Years Increased Its ...

Societies Of Art
Societies Of Art. According To A Pious Tradition St. Luke Was A Painter, And For That Reason, One Of The Earliest Art Societies, The Guild Of St. Luke In Florence, Bore His Name. Certain It Is That, In Banding Themselves Into Societies And Asso Ciations, Artists Have Always Been Especially ...

Society Of The Cincinnati
Society Of The Cincinnati, An Organization Formed By The Officers Of The American Revolutionary Army In May, 1783, A Few Weeks Before The Army's Disbandment, For The Purposes Of Promoting Friendship And Union, Of Cherishing The Memory Of Events Through Which They Had Passed, And Of Aiding Members And Their ...

Sociological Societies
Sociological Societies. The Societies Listed Below Are Those Of The Widest Appeal In Sociology And Allied Subjects. Allied Subjects (economic Science, Statistics, Law And Educa Tion) Are Included And The Chief Institutions For Research Into These Subjects Will Be Found Below. There Are Also The Manchester Statistical Society (1833), With ...

Sociology
Sociology. The Word Was Introduced In 1837 By Auguste Comte In The Lectures Which Resulted In The Publication Of His "positive Philosophy." Comte's Intention In Introducing The Word Has Been Widely Misunderstood. It Has Been Confused With The Suggestions Of Practical Change In Polity And In Religion, Which, In The ...

Socrates
Socrates, The Name Of A Famous 5th-century Church His Torian. The Of Socrates, Still Extant In Seven Books, Embracing The Period From 306 To 439, Was Written In 439, Or Within A Few Years Thereafter. He Was Born About 38o And Brought Up At Constantinople. He Was A "scholasticus" Or ...

Socrates
Socrates (c. 470 B.c.-399 B.c.), The Great Athenian Philos Opher, Was Put To Death In 399 B.c. At The Age Of 7o. His Birth Thus Falls In Or About 470, Ten Years After Salamis. His Father, Sophroniscus, Was A Friend Of The Family Of The "just" Aristeides; The Tale That ...

Soda Fountain
Soda Fountain. This Term Was Used To Designate The Equipment From Which Carbonated Water, Flavored And Sweetened, Is Drawn And Dispensed. An Apparatus To Serve Soda Water In A Glass Or Tumbler Instead Of From A Bottle Came Kvith The Develop Ment Of Carbonating Machinery. English And French Manufac Turers ...

Sodium
Sodium [symbol Na; Atomic Number Atomic Weight 23.00 (0= I6)], A Chemical Element Belonging To The Group Of Alkali Metals. It Is Abundantly And Widely Diffused In Nature, But Always In Combination. Sodium Chloride, Or Common Salt (q.v.), Is Exceedingly Common, Being The Chief Salt Present In Sea-water, Besides Occurring ...

Soest
Soest, A Town In The Prussian Province Of Westphalia, 33 In. E. Of Dortmund, On The Main Railway Cologne-elberfeld Berlin. Pop. (1933) 22,568. Mentioned In Documents As Early As The 9th Century, Soest Was One Of The Largest And Most Im Portant Hanseatic Towns In The Middle Ages. It Was ...

Sofia
Sofia (so-feah), Capital Of Bulgaria, In An Upland Plain, About 1,700 Ft. Above Sea-level, Between The Western Balkans On The North And Mt. Vita On The South. Pop. 287,976. Two Small Tributaries Of The River Isker, The Perlovetz And The Eleshnitza Or Boyana, Flow Respectively On The East And West ...

Soil
Soil. Soil Is The Surface Layer Of Earth On Which The Land Plants Grow. It Is Derived From, And Therefore Is Made Of The Same Constituents As The Rocks, But It Has Been Subjected To The Action Of Air And Water Which Have Altered And Removed Some Of The Original ...

Soil Fertility
Soil Fertility The Fertility Of The Soil Is Its Power To Support Plant Life, And The Phrase Has Meaning Because The General Requirements Of Most Cultivated Plants In Any Particular Region Are Very Similar. A Fertile Soil Has The Following Properties:—i. Sufficient Depth To Allow Full Root Development. 2. Supplies ...

Soil Protozoa
Soil Protozoa Among The Biologists Of The Nineteenth Century It Was Recog Nized That Protozoa Could Be Isolated From Soil, But It Was Not Until The Early Part Of The Present Century That The Suggestion Was Made That Such Organisms Might Be Taking A Share In The General Econ Omy ...

Soissons
Soissons, A City Of France, Capital Of An Arrondissement In The Department Of Aisne, 65 M. N.e. Of Paris By The Railway To Laon. Pop. (1931) 17,012. Soissons Is Generally Identified With The Oppidum Of Gallia Belgica, Called Noviodunum By Caesar. Noviodunum Was The Capital Of The Suessiones, Whose King, ...

Sokoto
Sokoto, A Province Of The British Protectorate Of Nigeria, West Africa; Formerly An Independent State. The Province Occu Pies The North-west Corner Of The Protectorate, And Is Bounded West And North By French Territory; Area 38,86o Sq.m. Pop. (1926) 1,666,821. The Southern Part Is Fertile, With Orchard Bush. The Northern ...

Sokotra
Sokotra (also Spelt Socotra And Formerly Socotora), An Island Under British Protection In The Indian Ocean. It Is Cut By 3o' N., 54° E., Lies About 13o M. From Cape Guardafui, And Is On The Direct Route To India By The Suez Canal. It Is 72 M. Long By 22 ...