Encyclopedia Britannica 1963 [20].pdf

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ENCYCLOPEDIA
BPSITANNICA
T H E UNIVERSITY
OF
CHICAGO
The Encyclopadid Britannica
is
~zlblised
with
the editorid
Z
advice
of
the
farz~ltieJ
h
The University
of
Chicago and of a
committee ofrnelnbers ofthefaczl& of Oxford, Cambridge
dnd London univerersities and of a committee
at The Univerrity of Toronto
Of
A
N w
Sayuty
of
U i e lKnowledge
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nvm
ENCYCLOPEDIA
Volume
20
S
ARSAPARILLA
TO
S
ORCERY
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, INC.
W I L L I A M BENTON, P U B L I S H E R
CHICAGO
L O N D O N . TORONTO
GENEVA
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OPYRIGHT
UNDER
~ N T E R N A T I O N A
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NION
PRINTED
IN
THE
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S.
A.
Volume
20
S
ARSAPARILLA,
a drug prepared from the roots of
several species of the genus
Smilax
(lily family). The
origin of the name is Spanish.
zarza
meaning "bramble"
and
parilla,
"little vine." The plants are indigenous to
Central America from the southern and western coasts of
Mexico to Peru. Only three species have been identified with
certainty:
Smilax aristolochiifolia,
S .
regeli
and
S.
febrifuga,
known
in commerce, respectively, as Mexican, Honduras and Ecuadorian
sarsaparillas. Other varieties, known commercially as Ecuadorian
(or Guayaquil) and Central American (Jamaica or Guatemala),
are derived from unidentified species of
Smilax.
The plants are
large perennial climbing or trailing vines, growing from short,
thick. underground stems from which rise numerous semiwoody
flexuous angular stems, bearing large alternate-stalked leaves. The
tendrils that provide support for the plants spring from the bases
of the leave;. The roots are dried in the sun, then gathered loosely
into bundles or bound tightly into cylinders, depending on the place
of origin, and exported. Several sterols and a crystalline glycoside,
sarsaponin, which yields sarsapogenin on hydrolysis, have been
isolated from the root. Sarsapogenin is related to steroids such
as progesterone and is used in their synthesis. Sarsaparilla is re-
garded popularly as a tonic, but in fact is inert and useless.
A
liquid extract in which it is combined with other flavouring agents
is an ingredient of such carbonated drinks as the American root
beer.
(V.
E.)
SARSFIELD, PATRICK
(
?-1693),
titular earl of
Lucan, Irish Jacobite and soldier. belonged to an Anglo-Norman
family long settled in Ireland. He J%asborn at Lucan, but the
date is unknown. Patrick, n h o was a younger son, entered Don-
gan's regiment of foot on Feb.
9. 1678.
During the last )ears of
Charles
I1
he served in the English regiments which were attached
to the army of Louis
XPV
of France. The accession of King
James
I1
led to his return home.
He took part in the suppression of the Western rebellion at the
battle of Sedgemoor on Jul>-
6, 168j.
In the following year he
was promoted to a colonelcy. King James had adopted the
dangerous policy of remodelling the Irish army so as to turn it
from a Protestant.to a Roman Catholic force, and Sarsfield mhose
famil) adhered to the church of Rome, mas selected to assist in
this reorganization. JVhen the king brought over a few Irish
soIdiers to coerce the English, Sarsfield went in command
of
them.
Sarsfield had a brush with some of the Scottish soldiers in the
service of the prince of Orange at Wincanton. When King James
fled to France, Sarsfield accompanied him.
I n
1689
he returned to Ireland with the king. During the
earlier part of the war he did good service by securing Connaught,
and was promoted to brigadier, and then major general After
the battle of the Bolne (July
I
,
16go),
and during the siege of
Limerick, Sarsfield came prominently forward. His capture of a
convoy of military stores at one of the two places called Bally-
neety, betmeen Limerick and Tipperary, delayed the siege of the
town till the \\inter rains forced the English to retire. This
achievement made him the popular hero of the war with the Irish.
IVhen the cause of King James was ruined in Ireland, Sarsfield
arranged the capitulation of Limerick and sailed to France on Dec.
2 2 ,
1691.
He received a commission as lieutenant general
(markcha1 de camp) from King Louis X I V and fought v i t h
distinction in Flanders till he was mortally mounded a t the battle
of Landen (Aug.
19, 1693).
H e died a t Huy two or three days
after the battle. In
1691
he had been created earl of Lucan by
King James. He married Lad) Honora de Burgh, b y whom he
had one son, James. n h o died childless in
1718.
See
J.
Todhunter,
Lzfe
of
Patrick
S a r ~ f i e l
(1895).
d
SARTHE,
a
dkpartement
of France, formed in
1790
out of
the eastern part of Maine, and portions of Anjou and of Perche.
Pop
(1954) 420.393.
,4rea
2,411
sq.mi. I t is bounded north by
the
de'partement
of Orne. northeast by Eure-et-Loir, east by
Loir-et-Cher, south by Indre-et-Loire and Maine-et-Loire and
west by Mayenne. The
dkpartement
includes the greater part of
the basin of the Sarthe, nhich drains the large bay in the southern
flank of the hills of Sormandy, and the city of Le Mans is a t the
focus of this bay, nhere the Sarthe from the northwest joins
the Huisne from the northeast. I t is floored largely by Jurassic
and Cretaceous rocks succeeding one another eastuard, with the
Armorican Palaeozoics on its western border. Southeast of the
Huisne the Eocene deposits stand out, forming a relatively poor
territory. The Loir f l o ~ s
through the southern edge of the de-
partment to join the Sarthe in Maine-et-Loire; along its chalky
banks caves have been hollowed out which, like those along
the Cher and the Loire, sen7e as dwelling houses and stores. The

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