SAVIN; SAVINE n.
A coniferous shrub (Juniperus Sabina) of Western Asia, occasionally found also in the northern parts of the United States and in British America. It is a compact bush, with dark-colored foliage, and produces small berries having a glaucous bloom. Its bitter, acrid tops are sometimes used in medicine for gout, amenorrho…
SIMOOM; SIMOON n.
A hot, dry, suffocating, dust-laden wind, that blows occasionally in Arabia, Syria, and neighboring countries, generated by the extreme heat of the parched deserts or sandy plains.
SKEPTIC n.
truth can be certainly known; a universal doubter; a Pyrrhonist; hence, in modern usage, occasionally, a person who questions whether any truth or fact can be established on philosophical grounds; sometimes, a critical inquirer, in opposition to a dogmatist. All this criticism [of Hume] proceeds upon the erroneous hyp…
SPERM WHALE n.
), a small whale (Kogia breviceps), seldom twenty feet long, native of tropical seas, but occasionally found on the American coast. Called also snub-nosed cachalot. -- Sperm-whale porpoise (Zoöl.), a toothed cetacean (Hyperoödon bidens), found on both sides of the Atlantic and valued for its oil. The adult becomes abo…
TELLURIUM n.
A rare nonmetallic element, analogous to sulphur and selenium, occasionally found native as a substance of a silver-white metallic luster, but usually combined with metals, as with gold and silver in the mineral sylvanite, with mercury in Coloradoite, etc. Symbol Te. Atomic weight 125.2. Graphic tellurium. (Min.) See S…