Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 19, Scripture-SUG

S E R
[ i7° 1
S E R
* Tac. Hijl.
lib. iv.
cap. 3.
Plut. de
IJide et Ofi-
ride. Clem.
Alex in
Protrep.
he was fometxmes taken for Jupiter Ammon, the Sun,
and Neptune: and the honours that were rendered to
him at Alexandria were more folemn and extraordinary
than thofe of any other place.. .
Plutarch and Clemens of Alexandria, as well as Ta¬
citus*, inform us, that while the firft Ptolemy was em¬
ployed in fortifying Alexandria with walls, adorning it
with temples and ilately buildings, there appeared to
him in his ileep a young man of extraordinary beauty,
of a ftature more than human, admonilhing him to dil-
patch into Pontus fame of his moft trufty friends to
bring from thence his ftatue : he affured him, that the
city and kingdom which poffeffed it fhould prove hap¬
py, glorious, and powerful. The young man having
thus fpoken, difappeared, mounting up into heaven in a
blaze of fire.
Ptolemy difcovered his vilion to the prlefts 5 but find-
jng them ignorant of Pontus, he had recouife to an A-
thenian, who informed him that near Sinope, a city of
Pontus, there was a temple much reforted to by the
natives, which was confecrated to Pluto, where he had
a ftatue, near which flood that of a woman. Ptolemy,
neglecting the injunctions of the apparition, it again
appeared to him in a menacing attitude •, and the king
immediately difpatched ambafladors to the Serapian mo¬
narch, loaded with prefents. The king of Sinope con-
fented ; but his fubjefts opp'ofed the removal of the fta¬
tue. The god, however, of his own accord, as we are
informed, conveyed himfelf to the ambaftador’s (hip, and
in three days landed in Alexandria. L he ftatue of Se-
rapis was ereCted in one of the fuburbs of the city, where
a magnificent temple w'as afterwards reared.
The ftatue of Serapis, according to Macrobius, was
of a human form, with a baiket or buftiel on his head,
fio-nifying plenty ^ his right hand leaned on the head
of a ferpent, whofe body wras wound round a figure
with three heads, of a dog, a lion, and a wolf j in his
left hand he held a meafure of a cubit length, as it were
to take the height of the waters of the Nile. The figure
of Serapis is found on many ancient medals.
The famous temple of Serapis at Alexandria was
deftroyed by order of J heodofius } and the celebrated
ftatue of this deity was broken in pieces, and its limbs
carried firft in triumph by the Chriftians through the
city, and then thrown into a fierce fire, kindled for that
purpofe in the amphitheatre. As the Egyptians afcri-
bed the overflowing of the Nile, to which was owing
the fertility of their country, to the benign influence of
their god Serapis, they concluded, that now he was
deftroyed, the river would no longer overflow, and that
a general famine would enfue i but when they obferyed,
on the contrary, that the Nile fwelied to a greater
height than had been known in the memory of man,
and thereby produced an immenfe plenty of all kinds
of provifions, many of the pagans renouncing the wor-
ftiip of idols, adored the God of the Chriftians.
SERENA gutta, the fame as amaurojis. See Me¬
dicine, N° 360.
SERENADE, a kind of concert given in the night
by a lover to his miftrefs, under her window'. Thefe
fometimes only confift of inftrumental mufic, but at
other times voices are added : the mufic and fongscom-
pofed for thefe occafions are alfo called ferenades.
SERENE, a title of honour given to feveral princes,
and to the principal magiftrates of republics. The king
of Britain, the republic and doge of Venice, and the
children of the king of Spain, are called tnqft ferene ;
and when the pope or the facred college write to the
emperor, to kings, or to the doge, they give them no
other title. In like manner, the emperor gives no other
title to any king, except to the king of France.
SERENUS Sammonicus, a celebrated phyfician
in the reigns of the emperors Severus and Caracalla, in
and about the year 200. He wrote feveral treatifes on
hiftory and the works of nature j but there is only one
of them extant, which is a very indifferent poem on the
Remedies of Difeafes. He was murdered at a feitival
by the order of Caracalla. He had a library that con¬
tained 62,000 volumes, which (Quintus Serenus Sam¬
monicus his fon gave to Gordian the Younger, to ■whom
he was preceptor.
SERES (Ptolemy) *, a people of the Farther Afia 5
bounded on the weft by Scythia extra Imaum ; on the
north and eaft, by Terra Incognita ; and on the fouth,
by India extra Gangem. According to thefe limits,
their country anfwers nearly to Cathoy or North China.
Other authors vary greatly in placing them, though the
generality agree in placing them far to the eaft. Mela
places them between the Indi and Scythse •, and perhaps
beyond the Indi, if we diftinguifti the Sinae from them.
The ancients commend them for their cotton manufac¬
tures, different from the produce of the bombyces or
filk-worms, called feres by the Greeks } whence/enba,
“ lilk.”
SERGE, a woollen quilted fluff, manufadhired on a
loom with four treddles, after the manner of rateeus,
and other fluffs that have the whale. The goodnefs of
ferges is known by the quilting, as that of cloths by
the fpinning. Of ferges there are various kinds, deno¬
minated either from the different qualities thereof, or
from the places where they are wrought. The moft:
confiderable is the London ferge, now highly valued
abroad, particularly in France, where a manufadlure is
carried on with confiderable fuccefs, under the title of
ferge fitfon de Londres.
The method of making the London ferge we (hall
now deferibe : For wool, the longeft is chofen for the
warp, and the ftiorteft for the woof. Before either kind
is ufed, it is firft fcoured, by putting it in a copper of
liquor, fomewhat more than lukewarm, compofed of
three parts of fair water and one of urine. After
having flayed long enough therein for the liquor to
diffolve, and take off the greafe, &c. it is ftirred brilkly
about with a wooden peel j taken out of the liquor,
drained, and wafhed in a running water, dried in the
(hade, beaten with flicks on a wooden rack to drive
out the coarfer duff: and filth, and then picked clean
with the hands. Thus far prepared, it is greafed with
oil of olives, and the longeft part, deftined for the warp,
is combed with large combs, heated in a little furnace
for the purpofe. To clear off the oil again, the wool
is put in a liquor compofed of hot water, with foap
melted therein : whence being taken out, wrung, and
dried, it is fpun on the wheel.
As to the fliorter wool, intended for the woof, it
is only carded on the knee with fmall cards, and then
fpun on the wheel, without being fcoured of its oil.
It muft be remarked, that the thread for the warp is al¬
ways to be fpun much finer, and better twilled than
that of the woof. The wool both for the warp and
the