Sichuan Vse-'chwan, 'se-'chwan\ or Ssu-ch'uan conventional Szechwan Province (pop., 2002 est.: 86,730,000), upper Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) valley, southwestern China. It is bordered by Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan provinces, Chongqing municipal¬ ity, and Tibet. It has an area of 188,000 sq mi (487,000 sq km) and encom¬ passes the central depression called the Sichuan (or Red) Basin; its capital is Chengdu. Sichuan is one of China’s most densely populated and eth¬ nically diverse provinces. It was among the first areas to be settled by the Chinese (5th century bc). From the Zhou dynasty (1046-256 bc) until the Song dynasty (ad 960-1279), it was administered through various politi¬ cal subdivisions. It was established as a province during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911/12). During the Sino-Japanese War (1937^15), it served as the seat (at Chongqing) of the Nationalist government; the Japanese never penetrated the area. It is China’s leading producer of rice, corn (maize), sweet potatoes, cattle, and pigs. The most industrialized province of south¬
western China, it is a centre for coal mining, petroleum refining, and chemical production. Sichuan’s spicy cuisine is renowned worldwide.
Sicilian school Group of Sicilian, southern Italian, and Tuscan poets centred in the courts of Frederick II (r. 1194-1250) and his son Manfred of Sicily (d. 1266). They established the vernacular, as opposed to Provencal, as the standard language for Italian love poetry and are also credited with inventing two major Italian poetic forms, the canzone and the sonnet. Some 125 of their poems are extant, many by Giacomo Da Lentini (fl. 13th century), the school’s senior poet. The Sicilian-school sonnet became, with variations, the dominant poetic form in Renaissance Italy and Elizabethan England, where it was modified to form the English, or Shakespearean, sonnet.
Sicilian Vespers (1282) Massacre of the French that began a Sicilian revolt against the Angevin king Charles I. Backed by Peter III of Aragon, the rising broke out when Sicilians killed some insulting French soldiers at vespers in the church of Santo Spirito in Palermo. The people of the city followed suit and massacred 2,000 of its French inhabitants. All of Sicily soon revolted and sought help from the Aragonese, and the war became a French-Aragonese struggle for possession of Sicily. The con¬ flict was finally resolved when the Sicilians chose Frederick III, brother of the king of Aragon, as their ruler in 1302.
Sicily Vsi-s9-le\ Italian Sicilia \si-'sil-y3\ Island, Italy. Sicily is sepa¬ rated from the mainland by the Strait of Messina. The largest island (9,830 sq mi [25,460 sq km]) in the Mediterranean Sea, it is also the site of Europe’s highest active volcano, Mount Etna. The capital is Palermo. Sicily’s strategic location at the centre of the Mediterranean has made the island a crossroads of history. The Greeks colonized it in the 8th-6th cen¬ turies bc, and in the 3rd century bc it became the first Roman province. It came under Byzantine rule in the 6th century ad and fell in 965 to Arabs from North Africa. It was taken in 1060 by the Normans. In the 12th-13th centuries and again in the 18th century it formed part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. During the 19th century it was a major centre of revolu¬ tionary movements; in 1860 it was liberated from the Bourbons, and in 1861 it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy. Agriculture is its eco¬ nomic mainstay; industries include oil refining, food processing, wine making, and shipbuilding. Together with the islands of Egadi, Lipari, Pelagie, and Panteleria, Sicily forms an autonomous region of Italy (pop., 2001 prelim.: 4,866,202).
sickle-cell anemia Blood disorder (see hemoglobinopathy) seen mainly in persons of Sub-Saharan African ancestry and their descendants and in those from the Middle East, the Mediterranean area, and India. About 1 in 400 blacks worldwide has the disease, caused by inheriting two copies of a recessive gene that makes those with one copy (about 1 in 12 blacks worldwide) resistant to malaria. The gene specifies a variant hemoglobin (hemoglobin S or Hb S) that distorts red blood cells (erythrocytes) into a rigid sickle shape. The cells become clogged in capillaries, damaging or destroying various tissues. Symptoms include chronic anemia, shortness of breath, fever, and episodic “crises” (severe pain in the abdomen, bones, or muscles). Hydroxyurea treatment triggers production of fetal hemo¬ globin (Hb F), which does not sickle, greatly lessening severity of crises and increasing life expectancy, pre¬ viously about 45 years.
Sicyon \'si-se-9n\ Ancient city, northern Peloponnese, southern Greece. Located 11 mi (18 km) northwest of Corinth, Sicyon was influential in Greek history, attaining its greatest power in the 6th century bc under Cleisthenes, grandfather of Cleisthenes of Athens. During the 4th century bc it was celebrated for its school of painters and sculptors, which included Lysippus. In the 3rd century bc it gained prominence under Aratus, who brought it into the Achaean League.
Siddons, Sarah orig. Sarah Kemble (b. July 5, 1755, Brecon,
Brecknockshire, Wales—d. June 8,
1831, London, Eng.) British actress.
VI l,
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Sarah Siddons, chalk drawing by J. Downman, 1787; in the National Por¬ trait Gallery, London
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1748 I Side ► Siemens-Martin process
She acted with her father’s traveling company and married actor William Siddons in 1773. Her performance as Isabella in Fatal Marriage at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1782 was highly successful; she was instantly acclaimed as the leading tragedienne of the time. Siddons played Shakes¬ pearean parts, notably Lady Macbeth, from 1785 until she retired in 1812. She was the subject of well-known portraits by Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds.
Side Vse-doV Ancient city, southwestern Anatolia. The most important port of ancient Pamphylia, it originally was situated on the Mediterranean Sea coast; it now lies inland. Though it was founded by Aeolian Greeks, a peculiar non-Greek language was spoken there. Alexander the Great occupied it (333 bc); the Seleucid king Antiochus III was defeated there by a Roman army in 190 bc. In the 1st century bc, Cilician pirates made it their chief slave market. The ruins include the remains of a colossal theatre, built on arches and considered one of the finest in Anatolia.
side horse See pommel horse
sidereal \sl-'dir-e-ol\ period Time required for a celestial body in the solar system to complete one revolution with respect to the fixed stars (as observed from a fixed point outside the system). A planet’s sidereal period can be calculated from its synodic period. The sidereal period of the Moon or an artificial satellite of Earth is the time it takes to return to the same position against the background of stars. See also day.
siderite VsI-do-.riA or chalybite Vka-lo-.bltX Iron carbonate (FeC0 3 ), a widespread carbonate mineral that can be an ore of iron. The mineral commonly occurs in thin beds with shales, clay, or coal seams (as sedi¬ mentary deposits) and in hydrothermal metallic veins (as gangue, or waste rock).
sidewinder Species ( Crotalus cerastes ) of small, nocturnal rattlesnake, found in sandy deserts of Mexico and the southwestern U.S. It is 18-30 in. (45-75 cm) long. It has hornlike scales above its eyes and is pale tan, pinkish, or gray, with an inconspicuous spotted pattern on the back and sides. It moves by looping itself obliquely across the sand, leaving a char¬ acteristic J-shaped trail. Its venomous bite is usually not fatal to humans.
Sidgwick, Henry (b. May 31,1838, Skipton, Yorkshire, Eng.—d. Aug. 29, 1900, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire) British philosopher. Educated at Cambridge, he remained there as a fellow (from 1859) and professor (from 1883). His Methods of Ethics (1874) is considered by some the most sig¬ nificant 19th-century ethical work in English. Drawing on the utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill and the categorical imperative of Immanuel Kant, he pro¬ posed a system of “universalistic hedonism” that would reconcile the apparent conflict between the pleasure of self and the pleasure of others. His other writings include Principles of Political Economy (1883) and Ele¬ ments of Politics (1891). He also cofounded the Society for Psychical Research (1882) and helped found Cambridge’s first women’s college.