(£6000 on his silver-wedding day and £5000 on his fiftieth birthday), which he handed over to these institutions. He died at Mentone on the 31st of January 1892, leaving a widow with twin sons (b. 1856). One of them, Rev. Thomas Spurgeon, after some years of pastorate in New Zealand, succeeded his father as minister of the Tabernacle, but resigned in 1908 and became president of the Pastors' College.
An Autobiography was compiled by his widow and his private secretary from his diary, sermons, records and letters (1897–1900).
SPURN HEAD, or Spurn Point, a foreland of the North Sea coast of England, in Yorkshire, projecting across the mouth of the Humber. Its length is nearly 4 m. from the village of Kilnsea, but its breadth seldom exceeds 300 yds., and it rises only a few feet above sea-level. It is formed of sand and shingle, the debris of the soft coast of Holderness to the north, from which it is estimated that six million tons of material are annually removed by southerly currents along the shore. Deep water is found close off the seaward side of Spurn Head, the formation of which appears to have taken place within historic times, even since about the close of the 16th century. There are two light- houses and a lifeboat station on the head.
SPURZHEIM, JOHANN CHRISTOPH [Kaspar] (1776–1832),
German phrenologist, was born near Treves on the 31st of
December 1776. He made the acquaintance of F. J. Gall
while studying medicine in Vienna, and for some years assisted
him in spreading his phrenological doctrines, but in 1813 the
two separated. Spurzheim lectured with considerable success in
England and France, and was extending his propaganda
to the United States when he died at Boston, Massachusetts,
on the 10th of November 1832. His works include: Anatomie
et physiologie du système nerveux (1810–1820); Observations sur
la phrénologie (1810); The Physiognomical Systems of Drs Gall
and Spurzheim (1815), and Essai philosophique sur la nature
de l'homme (1820). (See Phrenology.)
SPY, a commune near Namur, Belgium. Here in 1886, in
Betche aux Roches cavern, Maximin Lohest and Marcel de Puydt
found two nearly perfect skeletons (man and woman) at the
depth of 16 ft., with numerous implements of the Mousterian
type. All the human remains are now in the Lohest Collection, Liége. The skulls were characterized by enormous brows,
retreating forehead, massive jaw-bones, rudimentary chin and
large posterior molars. The skeletons were further marked by
a divergent curvature of the bones of the fore-arm; the tibia
were shorter than in any other known race, and stouter than in
most; the tibia and femur, being so articulated that to maintain
equilibrium the head and body must have been thrown forward,
as in the gait of the larger apes. These characteristics justify
placing “ the man of Spy in the lowest category . . . the
dentition is inferior to that of the neolithic man in France
. . . approximates near to the apes, although there is still,
to use the language of Fraipont and Lohest, an abyss
between the man of Spy and the highest ape ” (E. D. Cope,
“ The Genealogy of Man ” in The American Naturalist, April
1893, p. 334). With the skeletons were found bones of extinct
mammals, the woolly rhinoceros (Rhinoceros tichorhinus),
mammoth (Elephas primo-genius), and the cave-bear (Ursus
spelaeus).
See also L'Homme contemporain du mammouth à Spy (Namur, 1887); G. de Mortillet, Le Préhistorique (1900).
SPY (from " to spy " or " espy "; O. Fr. espie, espier, to spy,
watch; cf. Ger. spähen, Lat. specere, to look; the Fr. term
" espionage " is of course from the same source), in war—a person
who, disguised or without bearing the distinguishing marks of
belligerent forces, mixes with the enemy for the purpose of
obtaining information useful to the army he is serving. As by
the law of war a spy is liable, if caught, to the penalty of death,
the Hague " Regulations respecting the Laws and Customs of
War on Land " are very precise on the subject. A soldier not
wearing a disguise is not a spy, though he may be found within
the zone of the hostile army and though his object may be to
obtain information; nor are soldiers or civilians spies who cross
enemy lines openly carrying messages. This applies even to
persons sent in balloons for the purpose of carrying despatches.
In short, it is essential to the character of a spy that he should
act clandestinely or on false pretences, that he should be caught
within the zone of operations of the hostile belligerent forces,
and that his object should be to obtain information for use
against them (art. 29). The regulations also provide that he
cannot be " punished " without previous trial (art. 30). Nor
can he be treated as a spy if he is captured after he has rejoined
his army. He must then be treated as an ordinary prisoner of
war (art. 31). (T. Ba.)
The term " spy " is applied also to those who in time of peace secretly endeavour to obtain information concerning the forces, armaments, fortifications or defences of a country for the purpose of supplying it to another country. Every country has always endeavoured to guard jealously its military and naval secrets, and with this object denies admittance to fortified places or arsenals to those who cannot produce the proper credentials. Notwithstanding the utmost precautions, it is impossible to prevent some amount of leakage to countries which are prepared to pay for information otherwise unobtainable. Consequently, most countries have legislation dealing with " spying " in time of peace. In the United Kingdom, the Official Secrets Act 1889 makes it a misdemeanour wrongfully to obtain information as to any fortress, dockyard, office, &c., of his majesty, or, having such information or any information relating to the naval or military affairs of his majesty, to communicate the same to any person to whom it ought not in the interest of the state to be communicated at the time. If the information is communicated, or intended or attempted to be communicated, to any foreign state, the offence becomes a felony. In Germany an imperial law of 1893 deals similarly with such an offence.
SQUADRON, a military and naval term for a body of mounted troops or a detachment of war vessels. The word is derived from squadra, a square, as a military term, according to Florio, applied to a “ certain part of a company of souldiers of 20 or 25 whose chiefe was a corporal,” and so called no doubt as being formed on parade or in battle array in squares. Squadra, square, is derived from the Low Latin exquadrare, an intensive
form of quadrare (quadrus, four-cornered, quattuor, four). In military usage the term “ squadron ” is applied to the principal units into which a cavalry regiment is divided, corresponding to the company in an infantry battalion. The normal modern division of a cavalry regiment is into four squadrons of two to four troops each, this squadron numbering 120 to 200 men (see Cavalry). In naval usage a squadron is a group of vessels either as forming one of the divisions of a fleet or as a separate detachment under a flag officer despatched on special service. In military use, “ squad ” (a shortened form of “ squadron ”) is used of any small detachment of men detailed for drill, fatigue or other duty.
SQUAILS (from skail or kail, a ninepin), an old English game in which disks are snapped or struck with the palm from the edge of a table or board at a mark at its centre. Its early prototype was shove-groat, called also slyp-groat or slide-thrift, which in the 18th century went under the name of jervis or jarvis. This last variation was played on a table marked with chalk into alleys divided into squares numbered from 1 to 9 or 10, the object being to send a halfpenny into a high-numbered space. If it went beyond nothing was scored. The highest aggregate of a certain number of plays won. The most scientific development of this class of games is the modern Shuffle-board (q.v.).
SQUALL, the name given to any sudden increase of wind to gale force. Generally speaking a squall is understood to be of short duration, but the word " gust " would be used to indicate an increase of wind force of more transient character than a squall. Gusts may succeed one another several times within the compass of a minute. A squall may comprise a succession of gusts, with intervening partial lulls, and would last with
varying intensity for some minutes at least. The distinct
