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 II [ 186 ] S E R
* Seringham of the god Wiftnou worthipped by Brama •, and pilgrims
II came here from all parts of India with offerings of mo-
■ Serpens. nev to proCLire abfolution. A large part of the reve-
nue of the illand was allotted for the maintenance of
the Bramins who inhabited the pagoda 5 and thei'e, with
their families, formerly amounted to no fewer than
40,000 perfons, all maintained by the fuperllitious li¬
berality of the adjacent country.
SERIOLA, a genus of plants belonging to the clafs
fyngenefia, and in the natural fyftem ranged under
the 49th order, Compofine. See Botany Index.
SERIPHIUM, a genus of plants belonging to the
clafs fyngenefia. See Botany Index.
SERI PH US, in Ancient Geography, one of the Cy¬
clades or i(lands in the Aigean lea, called Saxum Sen-
phium by Tacitus, as if all a rock 5 one of the ulual
places of banifhment among the Romans. The people,
Seriphii; who, together with the Siphnii, joined Greece
againft Xerxes, were almoft the only itlanders who re-
fufed to give him earth and water in token of (ubmif-
(ion, (Herodotus). Seriphia Rana, a proverbial faying
concerning a perfon who can neither ling nor fay $ frogs
in this iiland being faid to be dumb, (Pliny).
SERMON, a difcourfe delivered in public, for the
purpofe of religious inllrudion and improvement.
Funeral SF.RMON. See FUNERAL Orations.
SERON OF xVLMONDS, is the quantity of two hun¬
dred weight j of anile feed, it is from three to lour hun¬
dred j of Cadile foap, from two hundred and a half to
three hundred and three quarters.
SEROSITY, in Medicine, the watery part of the
blood.
SERPENS, in AJlronomy, a conftellation in the
northern hemifphere, called more particularly Serpens
Ophiuchi. The ftars in the conftellation Serpens, in
Ptolemy’s catalogue, are 18 ; in Tycho’s, 13 ^ in He-
velius’s, 22 } and in the Britannic catalogue, 64.
SERPENS Biceps, or Double-headed Snake ; a monfter
of the ferpent kind, of which feme individuals are de-
feribed by naturalifts.
SerpentES, Serpents, in the Linnaean fyftem of zoo¬
logy, an order of animals belonging to the clafs of am¬
phibia. See Ophiology.
The ferpent has been always confidered the enemy
of man ; and it has hitherto continued to terrify and
annoy him, notwithftanding all the arts which have
been praftifed to deftroy it. Formidable in itfelf, it
deters the invader from the purfuit j and from its fi¬
gure, capable of finding (belter in a little fpace, it is
not eafily difeovered by thofe who would venture to
encounter it. Thus poflViTed at- once of potent arms,
and inacceffible or fecure retreats, it baffles all the
arts of man, though, ever fo earneftly bent upon its
deftruftion. For this reafon, there is fcarcely a country
in the world that does not ftill give birth to this poi-
fonous brood, that feems formed to quell human pride,
and reprefs the boafts of fecurity. Mankind have
driven the lion, the tiger, and the wolf, from their
vicinity 5 but the fnake and the viper ftill defy their
power.
Their numbers, however, are thinned by human af-
fiduity *, and it is poffible fome of the kinds are wholly
deftroyed. In none of the countries of Europe are they
fufficiently numerous to be truly terrible. The various
malignity that has been aferibed to European ferpents
I
of old is now utterly unknown ; there are not above three Set
or four kinds that are dangerou-*, and their poilon ope¬
rates in all in the fame manner. The drowfy death,
the ftarting of the blood from every pore, the inlatiable
and burning thirft, the melting down the folid mafs of
the whole form into one heap of putrefaction, laid to be
occafioned by the bites of Alrican lerpents, are horrors
with which wre are entirely unacquainted, and are per¬
haps only the creatures of fancy.
But though we have thus reduced thefe dangers, ha¬
ving been incapable of wholly removing them, in other
parts of the world they ftill rage with all their ancient
malignity. In the warm countries that lie within the
tropics, as well as in the cold regions of the north,
where the inhabitants are few, the ferpents propagate
in equal proportion. But of all countries thole re¬
gions have them in the greateft abundance where the
fields are unpeopled and fertile, and where the climate
fupplies warmth and humidity. All along the fwampy
banks of the river Niger or Oroonoko, where the fun
is hot, the forefts thick, and the men but lew, the fer¬
pents cling among the branches of the trees in infinite
numbers, and carry on an unceafing war againft all
other animals in their vicinity. Travellers have allured
us, that they have often feen large fnakes twining
round the trunk of a tall tree, encompaffing it like a
wreath, and thus rifing and defeending at pleafure.—
We are not, therefore, to reject as wholly fabulous the
accounts left us by the ancients of the terrible devafta-
tions committed by a fingle ferpent. It is probable, in
early times, when the arts were little known, and man¬
kind were but thinly fcattered over the earth, that fer¬
pents, continuing undiilurbed poffelfors of the foreft,
grew to an amazing magnitude j and every other tribe
of animals fell before them. It then might have hap¬
pened, that ferpents reigned the tyrants of a diftrift
for centuries together. To animals of this kind, grown
by time and rapacity to 100 or 150 feet in length, the
lion, the tiger, and even the elephant itfelf, were but
feeble opponents. That horrible foetor, which even the
commoneft and the moft harmlefs fnakes are ftill found
to diffufe, might, in thefe larger ones, become too
powerful for any living being to withftand 5 and while
they preyed without diftinftion, they might thus alfo
have poifoned the atmofphere around them. In this
manner, having for ages lived in the hidden and un¬
peopled foreft, and finding, as their appetites were more
powerful, the quantity of their prey decreafing, it is
poffible they might venture boldly from their retreats
into the more cultivated parts of the country, and carry
confternation among mankind, as they had before de¬
flation among the lower ranks of nature. We have
many hiftories of antiquity, prefenting us fuch a pic¬
ture, and exhibiting a whole nation finking under the
ravages of a fingle ferpent. At that time man had not
learned the art of uniting the efforts of many to effeft
one great purpofe. Oppofing multitudes only added
new viftims to the general calamity, and increafed mu¬
tual embarrafl'ment and terror. The animal was there¬
fore to be fingly oppofed by him who had the greateft
ftrength, the bell armour, and the moft undaunted cou¬
rage. In fuch an encounter, hundreds mull have fal¬
len j till one, more lucky than the reft, by a fortunate
blow, or by taking the monfter in its torpid interval,
and furcharged with fpoil, might kill, and thus rid his
country