SITOPRO'BIA, or SITOIIA'NIA. The repugnance to or refusal of food may range from mere impairment or loss of appetite, or hysterical antipathy to particular viands, to total and prolonged abstinence, as a symptom of delusion or 'delirium. In the :nsape, fool has been consistently refused fur years. During this time the system was, of course (see FASTING), sustained by compulsory alimentation. The causes of such a course are generally local disease in the organs of digestion, creating disgust and loathing toward food, and associating suffering with the process of nourishment; the fear of ,death, or the desire for death. The motives assigned for such feelings or resolution vary, of course, as the morbid condition may affect the stomach or the brain; and, according to the mental state predominating, suicide may be courted, or poisoning, drug ging, or pollution of aliment may be dreaded. The throat or bowels may be imagined to be hermetically sealed ; God or Satan may have imposed abstinence; the body is dead, inanimate, or belongs to another. Absurd as such principles of action may be, they prove inexpugnable to persuasion, or to the pangs of hunger and exhaustion, and require a special course of treatment. The determination may be exorcised by medicine; it may be overcome by commands, threats, bribes; it may be evaded by giving eggs, cocoa-nuts, milk from the cow, and other substances, into which mercury, arsenic, etc., cannot well be introduced; or it may lie defeated by placing food in the stomach through the instru mentality of tt e stomach-pump. There have been epidemics of maniacal abstinence.— Chipley, Americana Journal of Insanity, July, 1859; Browne, Report Crichton Institution, 1854.
S'IVA (a Sanskrit word, literally meaning happy, auspicious) is the name of the third god of the Hindu Trinairti (q.v.) or triad, in which he represents the principle of destruc tion. The name S'iva, as that of a deity, is unknown in the Vedic hymns, hut estab lished as such in the epic poems, Partin'as and Roams. The worshipers of S'iva (sce S'Arv.ss) assign to him the first place in the TrimQrti, and to them he is not only the chief deity, but the deity which comprises in itself all other deities. Thus, in the Siva Purcinn (see PuttAx's), he is addressed as Brahma, Vishn'n, Indra, Varun'a, as the sun and the moon, as earth, fire, water, wind, etc. ; but even in the Puriin'as relating to
Vishn'u, his power is exalted in praise, and he is addressed with the utmost awe. The symbol of S'iva is the Lino (q.v.). emblematic of creation, which follows destruction. From each of his numerous attributes or characteristics he derives a name or epithet. He has five heads (hence his name Panclainana, etc., the five-faced); three eyes (hence his name Trinetra, etc., the three-eyed), one of which is on his forehead, and indicates his power of contemplation; and in the middle of his forehead he wears a crescent. His hair is clotted together. and brought over the head so as to project like a horn from the forehead. On his head he carries the Ganges, whose course he intercepted by his hair, when this river descended from heaven, so as to enable the earth to bear its fall (hence his name aang(idhara, etc., the Ganges-bearer). Round his neck he carries a garland of human skulls; and Ids throat is dark blue, from the poison which he swallowed when it emerged from the ocean, churned by the gods for the attainment of the beverage of immortality; and threatened to destroy the world. In his hands lie holds the trident, a club or pole, armed at the upper end with transverse pieces, representing the breastbone and ribs adjoining. and surmounted by a skull and one or two human heads. His weapons are the laisiskim, which is not described, a bow called Afttkara, or Ajagaya, a thunderbolt, and an axe. As the destroyer of the world he is also called Kii'a (time or death), and represented as 4f black color. One of his representations is also half-male and half-female, emblematic of the indissoluble unity of the creative principle (lienc his name An/kandris'a, the half-female-lord). He is clothed in a deer-skin; or he also holds a deer in one of his hands; or he sits on a tiger-skin, or is clothed in it. When riding 1:1s vehicle is the bull _Nandi, whom he also carries as an emblem in his banner. fie •sides on the wonderful mount liair.sa, the norther.' peak of the 11imalaya, where he also rnIc.: over the north-east quarter. his principal wife is Durgd or Uilid (q. v.); his sons