several times larger than the others, and formerly called S. grandiflora, is now placed in a separate genus, exochorda.-Among the herbaceous species, the finest native is the queen of the prairie (S. lobata), found wild from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, and common in cul Dropwort (Spiræa filipendula). tivation, with small flowers of a peach-blossom color. Goats' beard (S. aruncus) is another native from New York westward, found also in Europe, with numerous slender spikes of dicecious, whitish flowers. Dropwort (S. filipendula), from Europe, has large cymes of white or pink-tipped flowers. The fine herbaceous plant which is often called spiræa Japonica belongs to the saxifrage family; its proper name is astilbe Japonica. SPIRAL VESSELS. See AIR VESSELS. SPIRE, or Spires (Ger. Speyer or Speier), a town of Bavaria, capital of the district of the Palatinate, on the left bank of the Rhine, at its junction with the Speyerbach, 16 m. N. E. of Landau; pop. in 1871, 13,241. It has a cathedral in the Romanesque style, remarkable for its size and antiquity; it was damaged by the French in 1689, but has been partly restored with great splendor; it contains the tombs of eight emperors, fine monuments, and a hall of antiquities. Very little is left of the imperial palace, where in 1529 the diet was held at which the Reformed princes made the protest from which originated the name of Protestants.-Spire was a Roman military station under the name of Augusta Nemetum (previously Noviomagus), and is said to have had a Christian community in the 2d century, and a bishop in the 3d. In the 7th century it was known under the Latin name of Spira. The town became of great importance as the ordinary residence of the emperors of Germany, and the seat of the imperial chamber or supreme court of appeal and of several diets. The French laid it in ashes May 31, 1689. It was rebuilt in 1699, but never recovered its | ancient prosperity. After the French occupation (1801-'14) it was in 1816 given to Bavaria.-The bishopric of Spire, one of the oldest in Germany, long enjoyed the rights of sovereignty, and the prince-bishops, whose castle was at Bruchsal, had an enormous income. More than half of the territory was given to France by the treaty of Lunéville, Feb. 9, 1801, and the rest to Baden in 1802. SPIRIT OF SALT. See HYDROCHLORIC ACID. SPIRITUALISM, a term formerly used to designate the doctrines and religious life of a class of mystics who professed to be under the sensible guidance of the Divine Spirit, and who were distinguished by a habit of spiritualizing the Sacred Scriptures. Jacob Boehm, Miguel de Molinos, Mme. Guyon, and Mme. de Bourignon, though not all ostensibly of the same communion, are representatives of the somewhat numerous class of religionists, particularly of the 17th century, to whose teachings and practice the appellation of spiritualism has been applied. Latterly, however, the word has been employed exclusively to designate the belief of those who regard certain accredited phenomena, physical and mental, as the result of the action of spirits, influencing and using persons of a peculiarly sensitive organization, known as mediums. In France Allan Kardec (the pseudonyme of Léon Hippolyte Denisart Rivail), who specially investigated the American phenomena, defined it as follows: "Properly speaking, spiritualism is the opposite of materialism. Whoever believes he has within him something distinguished from matter is a spiritualist; but it may not follow that he believes in the existence of spirits, or in their communications with the visible world. To designate this latter belief we employ, in place of the words spiritualism, spiritualist, the words spiritism, spiritist." Spiritualists assert that phenomena nearly identical with the manifestations of modern spiritualism appear in many ancient histories, in the Delphic oracles, in the lives of seers and clairvoyants, in the facts of witchcraft in all ages, in the Tedworth occurrences related by Glanvill (1661), in the Camisard marvels in France (16861707), in the occurrences in the Wesley family (1716), in Swedenborg's alleged full and open communication with the spirit world and daily converse with spirits and angels more than a century ago, in the records of mesmerism and somnambulism, in the traditions of countless families, and in the innumerable published accounts of remarkable dreams, predictions, and physical phenomena.-Clairvoyance appears to have played an important part in the introduction of modern spiritualism, and a historical sketch of the latter, to be complete, must include some notice of the former. Jung-Stilling (1740-1817), in his writings on pneumatology, noticed that clairvoyants, during their more exalted states of ecstasis, professed, with what seemed to him satisfactory evidence, to be in converse with invisible in telligences. The same claims to open inter- est children, Margaret, 12 years old, and Kate, course with the spiritual world, with many 9 years old, were at home when the family phenomenal evidences which he regarded as was startled by mysterious rappings that were establishing their truth, were afterward noted heard nightly upon the floor of one of the bedby Dr. Justinus Kerner, and detailed at large rooms, and sometimes in other parts of the in his biography (1829) of one of his patients, house. They endeavored to trace the sounds to Frederica Hauffe, more familiarly known as their cause, but failed. It is also alleged that a the seeress of Prevorst, who is said to have patter of footsteps was sometimes heard, the been in a magnetic state for most of the time bedclothes were pulled off, and Kate felt a cold during the last seven years of her life, descri- hand passed over her face. On the night of bing the persons and repeating the language March 31, when the raps occurred, Kate imitaof what she represented to be spirits, and be- ted them by snapping her fingers, and the raps ing often accompanied with mysterious rap- responded by the same number of sounds. ping sounds. In 1830 Bertrand and other Kate then said: "Now do as I do; count 1, 2, students of mesmerism came upon the borders 3, 4, 5, 6," at the same time striking her hands of spiritualism. The correspondence (1836) together. The same number of raps respondbetween the French mesmerists Billot and De- ed, and at similar intervals. The mother of the leuze shows that they were aware of some girls then said: "Count 10;" and 10 distinct of the marvels asserted by the later spiritual- raps were heard: "Count 15," and that numists. Billot writes that he and his co-sec- ber of sounds followed. She then said: "Tell taries had both seen and felt the spirits. De- us the age of Cathy [the youngest daughter] leuze declared that the possibility of com- by rapping one for each year," and the nummunicating with spirits had been proved to ber of years was rapped correctly. In like him, and he also cites the testimony of a dis- manner, the ages of each of four other and tinguished physician concerning clairvoyants then absent children were by request indicated who "cause material objects to present them- by this invisible agent. Mrs. Fox asked if it selves." Many instances of alleged intercourse was a human being that was making that noise, with the invisible world subsequently occurred and if it was, to manifest it by making the in France, Germany, and other parts of Eu- same noise. There was no sound. She then rope, and in the United States. In the spring said: "If you are a spirit, make two distinct of 1843 the societies of Shakers at New Leba- sounds." Two raps were accordingly heard. non and Watervliet, N. Y., and several other Three weeks afterward, it is said, it was made communities of that fraternity, almost simul- known by the raps that the body of a murdered taneously became the subjects of strange psy- man lay buried in the cellar, and the exact chological experiences, during which certain spot was indicated where parts of a human of the members would lose all personal con- skeleton were actually found. The name of sciousness, while influences purporting to be the murdered man was given, and it was the spirits of persons of different nations, who learned that five years before such a person had lived in the world in different ages, took had visited the house and had suddenly and possession of their bodies, and spoke through mysteriously disappeared. After a while the their vocal organs. None of the phenomena raps occurred only in the presence of the two of clairvoyance were more remarkable than sisters, Margaret and Kate. The family havthose in the case of Andrew Jackson Da- ing removed to Rochester, the raps accomvis. (See DAVIS, ANDREW JACKSON.) Thrown panied them, and new phenomena, including into an abnormal state of mind and body by clairvoyance and the movement of ponderable the process of magnetism, this young man, bodies without appreciable agency, were dewhile professing to be in immediate converse veloped. In November, 1849, the Fox girls with the spiritual world, dictated a large oc- appeared in a public hall, and the phenomena tavo volume, which was published under the were freely manifested and subjected to many title of "The Principles of Nature, her Divine tests; and a committee appointed for their inRevelations, and a Voice to Mankind." In a vestigation, after continuing their experiments portion of this book that was dictated in there and elsewhere for several days, reported 1845 (pp. 675-'6) the entranced author dis- that they were unable to trace them to any tinctly predicted that the communication with mundane agency. In May, 1850, the Fox girls the spiritual world would ere long assume arrived in New York; the alleged spiritual "the form of a living demonstration." It is manifestations became the subject of extennoteworthy that, although Davis was almost sive newspaper and conversational discussion; wholly uneducated, his first and subsequent their facts were published far and wide; "meworks, conceived when he was in a clairvoy-diums," through whom they were said to ocant state, or while more or less illuminated, as he claims, by the influence of invisible spirits, are written in correct and oftentimes elegant language. The "spirit-rapping" phenomenon began in March, 1848, in the family of John D. Fox, in Hydeville, Wayne co., N. Y. Besides Mr. and Mrs. Fox, only their two young cur, sprang up in different parts of the country, and were multiplied by hundreds and almost by thousands. In that year D. D. Home (see HOME, DANIEL DUNGLAS), at the age of 17, became known as a medium, and in the five following years he attained a wide-spread reputation, especially for his materialization, levita tion, and other phenomena far surpassing the medium; 5, the rising of tables and chairs off previous manifestations of ordinary mediums. the ground without contact with any person; Some of the most remarkable manifestations 6, the levitation of human beings; 7, movethrough his mediumship occurred in Spring-ments of various small articles without contact field, Mass., and in Hartford, Conn., at the with any person; 8, luminous appearances; 9, residences of Henry C. Deming, Isaac W. Stu- the appearance of hands, either self-luminous art, Alfred E. Burr, and others. In 1855 he or visible by ordinary light; 10, direct writing; went abroad, and gave sittings with manifesta- 11, phantom forms and faces; 12, special intions in the presence of Napoleon III. in Paris stances which seem to point to the agency of and Alexander II. in St. Petersburg; and both an exterior intelligence; 13, miscellaneous ocemperors gave him large presents in jewels currences of a complex character. The exhibiand money. Nearly contemporary with Home, tions which Mr. Crookes and a few friends witand since his publicity as a medium, many nessed were mostly in his own house, in the others in the United States and in Europe have light; and it is said that the existence of an obtained an almost equal celebrity for materi- unexplained force, with its amount and direcalizing manifestations. Among the mediums tion, was accurately tested by means of an inof the alleged spiritual manifestations there genious apparatus. In the spring of 1874 Mr. have been representatives from all classes and Crookes with others began the investigation of conditions of mankind. The alleged mediums phenomena exhibited in London through the have been classified as rapping mediums; me- mediumship of Florence Cook, afterward Mrs. diums for tipping and turning tables by a slight Corner. It is asserted that in a series of sittouch of the finger; for the movement of tings extending through several months a feponderable bodies without contact; for the male spirit form, temporarily materialized and production of phosphorescent lights in a dark not distinguishable from a human being, reroom; for playing on musical instruments in peatedly came from a cabinet into the light, a manner beyond their ordinary abilities; for conversed, sang, submitted to various tests, and involuntary writing, and for writing indepen- then disappeared. Mr. Crookes, who took dent of any apparent aid from human hands; several photographs of the figure, says: "It for direct spirit speech, and for impressional was a common thing for the seven or eight of speaking and personation; for stigmata; for us in the laboratory to see Miss Cook and the diagnosis and healing of disease; for levi-Katie' (the spirit) at the same time under the tation; for producing drawings and colored pictures; for photographing spirits; for the introduction of flowers, fruits, vegetables, and many other things into closed rooms; for the development of other mediums; and finally, what spiritualists consider the crowning marvel of all the manifestations, for the materialization of spirit forms identical in appearance with those of deceased persons. Indeed, the powers that are claimed for mediums are protean in variety. By the raps and tipping of tables, and by the control of the medium's organs to write and speak, the spirits are supposed to express their own peculiar intelligence in a degree of perfection proportioned to the development and passivity of the medium. It is averred that persons while under the spiritual afflatus have often spoken in foreign tongues which they had never learned; and writings in languages to them unknown have been produced in their presence, as we are told, by invisible hands. To all these modes of manifestation there are countless witnesses of high character and intelligence. In the "London Quarterly Journal of Science" for January, 1874, William Crookes, the editor, classifies some of the phenomena exhibited in repeated experiments with the mediums D. D. Home and Kate Fox (afterward Mrs. Jencken) as follows: 1, the movement of heavy bodies with contact, but without mechanical exertion; 2, the phenomena of percussive and other allied sounds; 3, the alteration of weight of bodies; 4, movements of heavy bodies when at a distance from the full blaze of the electric light." On one occasion Mr. Varley, the electrician, by means of a galvanic battery and cable-testing apparatus, showed to the satisfaction of the spectators that the medium was inside of the cabinet while the supposed spirit form was visible and moving outside. Two years previously the phenomena of materialization appeared at Moravia, N. Y., where Mrs. Mary Andrews was the medium; and Thomas R. Hazard of Rhode Island, the Rev. R. S. Pope of Hyannis, Mass., and other respectable persons present at these sittings, declared that they saw and conversed with the spirits of their deceased relatives and friends. Numerous credible witnesses, prominent among them Henry S. Olcott of New York, who devoted weeks to special investigation, testify that similar phenomena occurred in 1874-5 at the sittings with the Eddy brothers in Chittenden, Vt. Mr. Mott of Memphis, Mo., Mrs. Anna Stewart of Terre Haute, Ind., and Mrs. Markee of Havana, N. Y., have the reputation of being remarkable mediums for the materialization phenomena. The fraudulent character of some exhibitions has been exposed, notably of that of the Holmeses in Philadelphia in 1874, in which the supposed spirit form called "Katie King" appeared. To this exhibition Robert Dale Owen at first gave full credence, but he ultimately withdrew his confidence, though subsequent investigations threw doubt on the charges of imposture through a confederate. Almost from the time of the first sittings the phenomena of materialized spirit hands and feet have been common. Instruments have been floated around and spirit voices heard, phenomena supposed to be produced by the exercise of the materializing power. But notwithstanding the accumulated assumed testimony in regard to spirit photographs and materializations, spiritualists themselves are not yet unanimous in admitting them among what they believe to be fully verified phenomena. Besides the thousands in every grade of society, throughout the civilized world, who are more or less influenced by a belief in the supernatural origin of the manifestations, many persons in Europe and America, distinguished in the walks of science, philosophy, literature, and statesmanship, have become avowed converts, or have admitted the phenomena so far as to believe in a new force not recognized by science, or have testified that the manifestations they have witnessed are not capable of explanation on the ground of imposture, coincidence, or mistake, or at least have considered the subject worthy of serious attention and careful consideration. Among these are: Alexander Aksakoff, Robert Chambers, Hiram Corson, Augustus De Morgan, J. W. Edmonds, Dr. Elliotson, I. H. von Fichte, Camille Flammarion, Hermann Goldschmidt, Dr. Höffle, Robert Hare, Lord Lyndhurst, Robert and Robert Dale Owen, W. M. Thackeray, T. A. Trollope, Alfred Russel Wallace, Nicholas Wagner, and Archbishop Whately. As the organized bodies of spiritualists include but a small proportion of those who wholly or partially accept these phenomena, it is impossible to make even an approximate estimate of their numbers. While spiritualism has its converts from every religious denomination, no small proportion of its advocates are from the ranks of those who previously doubted or totally disbelieved the immortality of the soul, and who affirm that they carry their skeptical tendencies into the investigation of this subject. On matters of speculative theology, there seems to be among them the widest latitude of opinion, though a majority of them perhaps are in their speculations inclined to what may be termed a sublimated naturalism. They tell us that it is not the object of the spirits to teach theological dogmas as by any authority superior to that of man, but rather, by the mental and physical phenomena incidentally presented in the course of their manifestations, to furnish those elements of reasoning from which each one may work out his own conclusions; while we are told that the main object of their manifestations is to furnish actual demonstration of the immortality of the soul and of some of the conditions and laws of the post mortem existence. The books relating to spiritual manifestations may be reckoned by hundreds. The following are a few of the more important: J. Kerner, Die Seherin von Prevorst (Stuttgart, 1829; translated by Mrs. Crowe, London, 1845); Allan Kardec, Le livre des esprits (Paris, | 1853), with a supplementary work, Le livre des médiums (1863), the first translated into English by Anna Blackwell under the title, "The Spirits' Book" (Boston, 1875), and the second by Emma A. Wood, "The Book of Mediums" (Boston, 1875); S. B. Brittan and B. W. Richmond, "A Discussion of the Facts and Philosophy of Ancient and Modern Spiritualism" (New York, 1853); John W. Edmonds and G. T. Dexter, "Spiritualism" (2 vols., New York, 1854-5); Charles Linton, "The Healing of the Nations," with an introduction and appendix by N. P. Tallmadge (New York, 1855); Hudson Tuttle, "Scenes in the Spirit World, or Life in the Spheres" (New York, 1855); E. W. Capron, "Modern Spiritualism, its Facts and Fanaticisms " (Boston, 1855); Robert Hare, Experimental Investigations of the Spirit Manifestations" (New York, 1856); Louis de Guldenstubbe, La réalité des esprits et le phénomène merveilleux de l'écriture directe démontrés (Paris, 1857); Catharine Crowe, "Spiritualism and the Age we Live in" (London, 1859); Robert Dale Owen, "Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World" (Philadelphia, 1860), and "The Debatable Land between this World and the Next" (New York, 1872); D. D. Home, "Incidents of my Life" (London, Paris, and New York, 1862; a second volume with the same title, 1872, and a third announced in 1875); Mrs. A. De Morgan, "From Matter to Spirit" (London, 1863); J. E. de Mirville, Question des esprits et de leurs manifestations diverses (Paris, 1863); William Howitt, "History of the Supernatural in all Ages and Nations" (London, 1863); C. W. Upham, "Salem Witchcraft, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects " (2 vols., Boston, 1867); Epes Sargent, "Planchette, or the Despair of Science" (Boston, 1869), and "The Proof Palpable of Immortality" (1875); Emma Hardinge, "Modern American Spiritualism" (New York, 1870); William Crookes, "Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism" (London, 1874); A. R. Wallace, "On Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, three Essays" (London, 1875); and H. S. Olcott, "People from the Other World" (Hartford, 1875). With the exception of these and a few other books, the best portion of the literature of spiritualism is to be found in the various periodicals devoted to that subject, the number of which in 1875, in Europe, America, and Australia, was at least 60. SPITZBERGEN, a group of islands in the Arctic ocean, between lat. 76° 30′ and 80° 30′ N., and lon. 10° and 28° E., and nearly midway between Greenland on the west and Nova Zembla on the east; area estimated at 30,000 sq. m. The principal islands are Spitzbergen, Northeast land, Prince Charles, Edge, and Barentz. Spitzbergen proper, the largest of the islands, is nearly divided N. and S. by two arms of the sea, Weyde bay and Ice fiord, which stretch so far inland that their heads are separated by only a narrow peninsula 5 or 6 m. in breadth. The two divisions are sometimes called respectively West Spitzbergen and East Spitzbergen or New Friesland. E. of Spitzbergen lie Barentz island and Edge island (Russ. Maloi Brun), separated from it by a strait called Wybe Jans water, or by the Swedes Stor fiord. Between Edge and Barentz islands is Freeman or Thymen strait, and between Barentz island and Spitzbergen on the north Heley's sound. Hinlopen or Waygat strait separates Spitzbergen from Northeast land, so called from its relative position to the larger island. Its coast line is rugged and penetrated by numerous fiords, and it is surrounded by many islands, the principal of which are High island on the east, the group called the Seven islands on the north, and Low island on the west. Near the southern mouth of Hinlopen strait is Waygat or Wilhelm island, explored by Smyth in 1871. W. of Spitzbergen, and separated from it by Foreland strait, lies Prince Charles island or foreland. Little is known of the interior of Spitzbergen, but many mountains are visible from the coast, some of them 3,000 to 4,000 ft. high, the valleys of which are filled with glaciers. On the W. coast the mountains rise generally within 3 m. of the shore, leaving a level space between them and the sea. The N. shores are not so high, but inland the ice hills gradually rise to an elevation of more than 2,000 ft. Around the South cape or Point Lookout, the S. termination of Spitzbergen, the coast is flat, but it soon rises into a mountain chain which extends northward. The E. coasts have not been thoroughly explored. Spitzbergen feels the influence of two ocean currents flowing from nearly opposite directions: a polar current, which blocks up the E. and N. E. sides with ice and renders navigation dangerous, if not impossible; and a warmer Atlantic current, which flows up the W. coast and keeps it comparatively free from ice. The climate is intensely cold, the mean temperature on the W. coast during the three warmest months not exceeding 34.5°. The longest day in the N. parts is four months, and from Oct. 22 to Feb. 22 the sun does not rise above the horizon; but the long night is relieved by a faint twilight and the occasional brilliant light of the aurora borealis, and the moon and stars shine with great brightness. Winter begins at the end of September, and by the middle of October the cold is intense. Storms are frequent, and great quantities of snow fall. During the short summer the climate is temperate for the latitude, and a scanty vegetation springs up. About 40 species of plants have been classified, the most vigorous of which do not exceed 3 or 4 in. in height. The animals are polar bears, polar foxes, and reindeer. Sea fowl are numerous, and the surrounding waters abound with whales, seals, walruses, and large fish. Marble and coal of good quality have been found. These islands have been visited by whalers for 2 centuries, and though there is no permanent settlement on any of them, Russian sailors have lived for years at a time on the W. coast. Their sovereignty is claimed by Russia.-Spitzbergen is supposed to have been first seen by Willoughby in 1553, in the voyage in which he perished with his crew. Barentz came in sight of the N. end of the W. coast, lat. 77° 49', on June 19, 1596. He named it Greenland, and the Dutch navigators who followed him called it Nieuwland. By the English it was called King James's Newland. The name Spitzbergen (pointed mountains) first appears in a tract published by Hessel Gerard in 1613. Henry Hudson visited the N. and W. coasts in 1607, and soon after the seas around Spitzbergen became a favorite fishing ground for whalers, principally English and Dutch. In 1617 a ship of Capt. Edge's fleet explored the E. coast as far as lat. 79°, and discovered Wiche's land E. of Spitzbergen. This was renamed King Karl land in 1870 by Baron von Heuglin, who saw it from off Edge island and supposed he had made a new discovery. It was visited for the first time in 1872 by Nils Jansen, a Norwegian whaling captain. Important additions to our knowledge of Spitzbergen and its surroundings have been made by the Swedish expeditions under Nordenskjöld in 1858, '61, '64, 68, and '72; by B. Leigh Smyth and Ulve in 1871-'2; and by Altmann and Nilsen in 1872. SPITZ DOG, a small variety of the Pomeranian dog. It is evidently derived from some of the arctic or wolf dogs, and resembles in its short, ovate, erect, and hairy ears, pointed muzzle, much curved and bushy tail, the Esquimaux, Hare Indian, Siberian, Lapland, and Iceland dogs, though of smaller size and with finer and longer hair. The hair is long, espe |