(fab. hift.) a monster which had the head and breasts of a woman, the body of a dog, the tail of a serpent, the wings of a bird, the paws of a lion, and an human voice. It sprang from the union of Ortho with the Chimæra, or of Typhon with Echidna. The Sphinx had been sent into the neighbourhood of Thebes by Juno, who wished to punish the family of Cadmus, which persecuted with immortal hatred, and it laid this part of Boeotia under continual alarms, by proposing enigmas, and devouring the inhabitants if unable to explain them. In the midst of their consternation the Thebans were told by the oracle, that the sphinx would destroy herself as soon as one of the enigmas the proposed was explained. In this enigma she wished to know what animal walked on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening. Upon this Croon king of Thebes promised his crown and his sister Jocasta in marriage to him who could deliver his country from the monster by a successful explanation of the enigma. It was at last happily explained by Oedipus, who observed, that man walked on his hands and feet when young, or in the morning of life, at the noon of life he walked erect, and in the evening of his days he supported his infirmities upon a stick. (Vid. Oedipus). The sphinx no sooner heard this explanation than she dashed her head against a rock, and immediately expired. Some mythologists wish to unriddle the fabulous traditions about the sphinx by the supposition that one of the daughters of Cadmus, or Laius, infested the country of Thebes by her continual depredations, because she had been refused a part of her father's possessions. The lion's paw expressed, as they observe, her cruelty, the body of the dog her lasciviousness, her enigmas the snare she laid for strangers and travellers, and her wings the dispatch she used in her expeditions.

Among the Egyptians the sphinx was the symbol of religion, by reason of the obscurity of its mysteries; and on the same account the Romans placed a sphinx in the pronaos or porch of their temples. Sphinxes were used by the Egyptians to show the beginning of the water's rising in the Nile: with this view, as it had the head of a woman and body of a lion, it signified that the Nile began to swell in the months of July and August, when the sun passes through the signs of Leo and Virgo. There are several of these still to be seen; one in particular, near the pyramids, much spoken of by the ancients; being of a prodigious size, and cut out of the rock; the head and neck appear only at present, the rest of the body being hid in the sand. This, according to Thevenot, is 26 feet high, and 15 feet from the ear to the chin: but Pliny affirms us, the head was no less than 102 feet in circumference, and 62 feet high from the belly, and that the body was 143 feet long, and was thought to be the sepulchre of king Amasis.

The learned Mr Bryant * observes, that the sphinx seems to have been originally a vast rock of different strata; which, from a shapeless mass, the Egyptians fashioned into an object of beauty and veneration. The Egyptians used this figure in their buildings; from them the Greeks derived it, and afterwards improved it into an elegant ornament. It is also frequently used in modern architecture.

It is proper to observe, that the sphinx of the Egyptians is said in the Asiatic Researches † to have been found in India. Colonel Pease was told by Murari Pandit, a man of learning among the Hindoos, that the sphinx there called jingh is to appear at the end of the world, and as soon as he is born will prey on an elephant: he is therefore figured seizing an elephant in his claws; and the elephant is made small, to show that the jingh, even a moment after his birth, will be very large in proportion to it. But in opposition to this account given by Murari Pandit, the late Sir William Jones, the learned and illustrious president of the Asiatic Society, was assured by several Brahmins, that the figure taken for a sphinx was a representation of a lion seizing a young elephant. This point therefore requires further investigation.

Sphinx, Hawk-Moth, in natural history; a genus of insects belonging to the order of lepidoptera. The antennæ are shaped somewhat like a prism, and are more slender at each end than at the middle. The tongue is generally thrust out: the two palpi are bent back, and the wings deflexed. There are about 165 species already discovered, of which 10 are found in Great Britain and Ireland.

1. The ocellata, eyed willow hawk-moth. There is no trunk; the wings are indented. Above, 1st wings dark and light-brown, marbled; 2d, red, with a large yellow-black eye. Beneath, a large red triangle from the base of the 1st wings. The breadth one inch and an half. Caterpillar smooth, green, with oblique white lines on the sides, and a posterior horn. The eggs are green. It lives on willows. 2. Populi, poplar hawk-moth. The wings are scalloped, bluish grey, and wavyed with dark lines. On the 1st wings a long white spot, and the base of the 2d red-brown. Wings reversed. Length one inch. A long spiral trunk caterpillar green, smooth, with oblique white spots, and a posterior horn. It lives on poplars and willows. 3. Tilia, lime hawk-moth. No trunk: the wings are scalloped: the antennæ are white on the upper side, yellow on the under. Above, 1st wings grey-brown, with two irregular large green spots; 2d, wings orange. Beneath greenish grey. Caterpillar green, thagreened, with a posterior horn. 4. Convolvuli, unicorn, or bindweed hawk-moth. The antennæ are long and thick: the trunk very long and spiral. Above, body marked with black and red belts; wings entire, brown-grey, with black zig-zag transverse lines. The breadth three inches. Caterpillar smooth, green, with a posterior horn. 5. Ligustri, privet hawk-moth. The antennæ are long, thick, and brown. Trunk long, spiral. 1st wings two inches long, narrow, entire, brown; 2d, short, red, with black bars. The abdomen is red, with black rings. Caterpillar smooth, yellow-green, with a posterior horn. 6. Atropos, jasmine hawk-moth. The wings are entire: the trunk long, spiral. Above, 1st wings brown, clouded with grey and yellow, and a yellowish spot in the centre; 2d, yellow, with two waved transverse stripes. The abdomen is yellow, with seven black-brown belts. The thorax marked like a Death's-head. Length two inches. Caterpillar very large, yellow, with six green and orange oblique belts, and a posterior horn. 7. Eleocharis, elephant moth. The wings are angular, entire. Above, 1st wings striped transversely with red and green; 2d, black at the base, and red outwards. The body red and green. Caterpillar smooth, brown and yellow, with a posterior horn, and a snout like a hog. It lives on vines, convolvulus, &c. 8. Stellatarum, large bee moth. The antennæ are thick towards the ends, brown. brown. The trunk is spiral; the wings are short and entire; the body is thick, brown, and hairy. First wings are brown, waved; 2d, red-brown. It resembles a large bee. Caterpillar smooth, with a posterior blue horn, tipped with red. It lives on gallium. 9. Tipuliformis, small bee moth. The thorax is yellow beneath; the wings are short, with black veins. The abdomen black, bearded, yellow at the extremity. Caterpillar on the lonicera. 10. Filipendula, burnet moth. The antennae, legs, and body, are black. Second wings red, with a greenish border. First wings bluish green, with five red spots, in pairs. Length eight lines. Caterpillar yellow, with black spots. It lives on grass.

The name Sphinx is given to this genus on account of the singular attitudes of their caterpillars, who apply the hinder part of their body to a branch of a tree, holding the rest of it erect, like the fabulous sphinx. Most of them spin their cocoon under ground, making them up with small parcels of earth and grains of corn interwoven with threads. The sphinges fly either early in the morning, or after sunset in the evening. They fly heavily and sluggishly, often emitting a kind of sound.

SPIGELIA, Worm-grass, in botany: A genus of plants belonging to the class of pentandria, and order of monogynia; and in the natural system arranged under the 47th order, Stellate. The corolla is funnel-shaped; the capsule is didymous, bilocular, and polypernous. There are two species, the anthelmia and marilandica.

The anthelmia has a herbaceous stem, and its highest leaves are fourfold.

"The effects of this medicine (says Dr Browne) are these: It first procures sleep, almost as certainly, and in an equal degree, with opium; the eyes seem to be distended, and sparkle as it were before the eruption of the small-pox or measles; which may be easily observed after the sleep is over; the pulse grows regular and rises, the fever cools, the symptoms appear more favourable, and the worms are generally discharged by the use of the subsequent purgatives (if not before) in great quantities, often above 100 at a time; but when a few only come away, which is seldom, and these alive, the same doses are again repeated, which seldom or never fail. I never saw this medicine fail when there was the least probability of success; nay, often prove successful when there was not the least reason to expect it. I have been, however, cautious in ordering it for children; for though I never knew it at all hurtful, its effect upon the eyes has often deterred me from ordering it to children, whose fibres are weak and relaxed, and in whom the fevers from this source are seldom so vehement as to hinder the administration of other medicines, likely as effectual in other cases of this nature. This plant is generally had in low dry lands, after they have been turned up some months, and after great rains; its taste is herbaceous, and somewhat clammy, its growth is soft and sudden, its stalk hollow, smooth, and roundish. Its herbaceous taste and sudden growth would alone make me think it capable of little or no action, had not hundreds of careful observations satisfied me to the contrary."

The marilandica, perennial worm-grass, or Indian pink. The best description of this plant which we have seen is given by Dr Woodville, in his Medical Botany; a work which exhibits a complete systematic view of the medicinal effects of vegetables. Its stem is four-cornered; all the leaves opposite.

Dr Garden, in a letter to the late Dr Hope, professor of botany in the university of Edinburgh, dated 1763, gives the following account of the virtues of this plant. "About 40 years ago, the anthelmintic virtues of the root of this plant were discovered by the Indians; since which time it has been much used here by physicians, practitioners, and planters; yet its true dose is not generally ascertained. I have given it in hundreds of cases, and have been very attentive to its effects. I never found it do much service, except when it proved gently purgative. Its purgative quality naturally led me to give it in febrile diseases, which seemed to arise from viscidity in the prime via; and, in these cases, it succeeded to admiration, even when the sick did not void worms.

"I have of late, previous to the use of the Indian pink, given a vomit, when the circumstances of the case permitted it; and I have found this method answer so well, that I think a vomit should never be omitted. I have known half a dram of this root purge as briskly as the same quantity of rhubarb; at other times I have known it, though given in large quantities, produce no effect upon the belly: in such cases, it becomes necessary to add a grain or two of sweet mercury, or some grains of rhubarb; but it is to be observed, that the same happy effects did not follow its use in this way, as when it was purgative without addition. The addition, however, of the purgative renders its use safe, and removes all danger of convulsions of the eyes, although neither ol. ruta, folia, or any other nervous substance, is given along with it. It is, in general, safer to give it in large doses than in small; for, from the latter, more frequently the giddiness, dimness of the sight, and convulsions, &c., follow; whereas, from large doses, I have not known any other effect than its proving emetic or violently cathartic. To a child of two years of age, who had been taking 10 grains of the root twice a-day, without having any other effect than making her dull and giddy, I prescribed 22 grains morning and evening, which purged her briskly, and brought away five large worms. After some mouths an increased dose had the same good effects. I prefer the root to the other parts of the plant; of which, when properly dried, I gave from 12 to 60 or 70 grains in infusion. In infusion, it may be given to the quantity of two, three, or four drams, twice a-day. I have found that, by keeping, the plant loses its virtue in part; for 40 grains of the root which has not been gathered above two months, will operate as strongly as 60 which has been kept for 15 months."

In Dr Garden's subsequent letters, addressed to Dr Hope, in the years 1764 and 1765, the efficacy of this root in worm cases is further confirmed; and he observes, that the root keeps better than he at first thought (having lately used it several years old with great success). In what he calls continued or remitting low worm fevers, he found its efficacy promoted by the addition of rad. sefentar virg.