have had of amassing a fortune. Though politically opposed to the Gracchi, he cannot be said to have been a foe to the interests of the people. He was, in fact, a moderate man, in favor of conciliation, and he was felt by the best men to be a safe political adviser, while he unfortunately contrived to offend both parties.
See Polybius xxxv. 4, xxxix.; Vell. Pat. i. 12; Florus ii. 15, 17, 18; Appian, Punica, 72, 98, 113-131, Hisp. 48-95, Bell. Civ. 1. 19; Plutarch, Aemelius Paullus, 22, Tib. Gracchus, 21, C. Gracchus, 10; Gellius iv. 20, v. 19; Cicero, De orat. ii. 40; exhaustive life by E. Person (Paris, 1877); monograph by Lincke (Dresden, 1898).
4. Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio, consul 138 B.C., took a prominent part in the murder of Tiberius Gracchus. To save him from the vengeance of the people, he was sent by the senate on a pretended mission to Asia, where he died. The nickname Serapio was given him by the tribune C. Curiatius from his likeness to one Serapio, a dealer in sacrificial victims.
See Appian, Punica, 80 B.C., i. 16; Val. Max. ix. 14; Plutarch, Tib. Gracchus, 21.
SCIRE FACIAS, in English law, a judicial writ founded upon some record directing the sheriff to make it known (scire facias) to the party against whom it is brought, and requiring the latter to show cause why the party bringing the writ should not have the advantage of such record, or why (in the case of letters patent and grants) the record should not be annulled and vacated. Proceedings in scire facias are regarded as an action, and the defendant may plead his defense as in an action. The writ is now of little practical importance; its principal uses are to compel the appearance of corporations aggregate in revenue suits, and to enforce judgments against shareholders in such companies as are regulated by the Companies Clauses Act 1845, or similar private acts, and against garnishees in proceedings in foreign attachment in the lord mayor's court. Proceedings by scire facias to repeal letters patent for inventions were abolished by the Patents, Designs and Trademarks Act 1883, and a petition to the court substituted. It is not used in Scottish procedure.
SCISSORS, a cutting instrument, consisting of two crossed
blades with the inner edges sharpened, pivoted at the crossing,
and terminating with two looped handles for the insertion of
the fingers of the person using them. The term is usually confined
to small cutting implements, the larger being known as
“shears” (q.v.). The modern form of the word points to a
derivation from Lat. scindere, to cleave or cut, and is no doubt
due to Lat. scissor, a cutter, which was used only of a carver,
a butcher and a class of gladiators, never of a cutting instrument;
but the earlier forms, cysowres, sisoures, cisors, cissers, sizers, &c.,
show the origin to be found in O. Fr. cisoires, shears, mod.
ciseaux, plural of ciseau, earlier cisel, a chisel, and therefore
to be referred to Lat. caedere, to cut, cisorium, a cutting
instrument.
SCLOPIS DI SALERANO, FEDERIGO (1798–1878), Italian
statesman and jurist. While still comparatively young he was
appointed attorney-general to the Sardinian senate, and took
part in the compilation of the new codes. An advocate of liberal
ideas and reform, he proclaimed the necessity for a constitution,
and was himself one of the authors of the Statuto, or Sardinian
charter of 1848, which is to this day the constitution of the
Italian kingdom; the introduction is entirely his work. Sclopis
also wrote the proclamation in which Charles Albert announced
to the people of Lombardy and Venetia his war against Austria.
He was minister in the first Sardinian constitutional ministry
under the presidency of Count Balbo, and afterwards president of
the senate. In 1871 he was sent to Geneva as Victor Emmanuel's
representative on the “Alabama” arbitration, and was chosen
president of that tribunal; on his return to Italy the king conferred
on him the Order of the Annunziata. The last years of his
life were mainly occupied with municipal affairs and charitable
administration at Turin. Between 1819 and 1878 he published
over seventy works on history, jurisprudence, politics and
literature, in Italian, Latin and French. At the age of thirty he
was elected member of the Turin Academy of Sciences, of which
he became life president in 1864; he was also foreign member
of the Institut de France. His most important work is his Storia
della legislaziona Italiana dalle origini fino al 1847 (Turin, 1840),
issued as a sequel to his Storia dell' antica legislazione del Piemonte,
published in 1833.
Among his other writings we may mention the following: Ricerche sui Longobardi in Italia (1827), Delle relazioni politiche fra la dinastia di Savoia e il governo Britannica dal 1240 al 1815 (1853), Rimembranze sul Conte di Cavour (1876), and Considerazioni storiche sulle antiche assemblee rappresentative del Piemonte e della Savoia (1878).
See E. Ricotti, Notizia biografica di F. Sclopis; A. Manno, Bibliografia degli scritti di F. Sclopis; M. Ricci, Necrologia di F. Sclopis (in the Archivio storico Italiano, ser. iv. tom. ii. p. 331 seq.).
SCOLD, one who scolds, i.e. chides, finds fault with or rebukes with violence or persistence or vituperation. It is usually a term applied to women, and a “ common scold ” (in Low Lat. communes rixatrix) was indictable in England at common law as a public nuisance, special instruments of punishment being devised in the “branks” or “scold’s bridle,” and the “cucking stool.” The word is apparently an adaptation of the Norse skald, skald or scald, a poet, and according to the New English Dictionary the intermediate meaning through which the sense develops is “ libeller ” or “lampooner.” Skeat derives from Du. schold, schellen, and takes the word as originally meaning a loud talker, cf. Icel. skjalla, to clash, Ger. schallen. The Norse word is also to be connected in this case, the “ skald ” being one who talks loudly.
SCOLECITE, a mineral belonging to the zeolite group;
a hydrated calcium silicate, CaAl2Si3O10+3H2O. It is a
lime-zeolite, and like the soda-zeolite natrolite and the soda-lime-zeolite
mesolite, usually occurs as acicular and fibrous aggregations.
Although having nearly the same inter facial angles as
the orthorhombic natrolite, it crystallizes in the monoclinic
system, and, as shown by the etched figures and the pyroelectric
character, in the hemihedral class of this system, there
being a plane, but no axis, of symmetry. Scolecite can therefore
be distinguished from natrolite by an optical examination, since
the acicular crystals do not extinguish parallel to their length
between crossed nicols. Twinning on the ortho-pinacoid is
usually evident. The mineral is colourless or white, transparent,
and vitreous in lustre: the hardness is 512, and the specific
gravity 2.2. It is a mineral of secondary origin, and occurs
with other zeolites in the amygdaloidal cavities of weathered
volcanic rocks of basic composition. Fine divergent groups of
prismatic crystals are found in the basalt of Berufjord near
Djupivogr in Iceland and in the Deccan traps near Poona in
India; hence the synonym poonahlite for this species. The
name scolecite is derived from Gr. σκώληξ, a worm, because
the crystals sometimes curl up like worms when heated before
the blowpipe. (L. J. S.)
SCONCE (Lat. absconsus, Fr. esconce), a word of many meanings,
mostly signifying a covering or protection, or, by extension,
that which is covered or protected. Its most familiar significance
is that of a wall light, consisting of a metal bracket, with two or
more socketed branches for candles. The word is also used for
the orifice of a candlestick into which the candle is fixed, and
for the rim of metal, glass or china, placed round a candle to
intercept grease droppings. Among its obsolete meanings is
that of head or skull. At the English universities “ to sconce ”
is still used as the term for imposing a penalty at dinner in the
shape of a quart-pot of beer or cider.
SCONE (pron. Skoon; Gaelic, skene, “a cutting”), a parish
of Perthshire, Scotland, containing Old Scone, the site of an
historic abbey and palace, and New Scone, a modern village
(pop. 1585), 2 m. N. of Perth, near the left bank of the Tay.
Pop. of parish (1901) 2362. It became the capital of Pictavia,
the kingdom of northern Picts, in succession to Forteviot.
Parliaments occasionally assembled on the Moot Hill, where
the first national council of which we possess records was held
(906). The Moot Hill was known also as the Hill of Belief from
the fact that here the Pictish king promulgated the edict regulating
the Christian church. The abbey was founded in 1115 by
Alexander I., but long before this date Scone had been a centre
of ecclesiastical activity and the seat of a monastery. Kenneth
