smew See merganser
smilax \'sml-,laks\ Any of about 300 species of woody or herbaceous vines, variously known as catbriers and greenbriers, that make up the genus Smilax (family Smilacaceae), native to tropical and temperate regions. The stems of many species are covered with prickles, the lower leaves are scalelike, and the leathery upper leaves have untoothed blades with three to nine large veins. White or yellow-green flowers are followed by clusters of red or bluish-black berries. Common catbrier (5. rotundi- folia) and carrion flower ( S. herbacea ) of eastern North America are some¬ times cultivated to form impenetrable thickets. See also sarsaparilla.
Smith, Adam (baptized June 5, 1723, Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scot.—d. July 17, 1790, Edinburgh) Scottish social philosopher and political economist. The son of a customs official, he studied at the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford. A series of public lectures in Edinburgh (from 1748) led to a lifelong friendship with David Hume and to Smith’s appointment to the Glasgow faculty in 1751. After publishing The Theory of Moral Senti¬ ments (1759), he became the tutor of the future Duke of Buccleuch (1763— 66); with him he traveled to France, where Smith consorted with other eminent thinkers. In 1776, after nine years of work, Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, the first comprehensive system of political economy. In it he argued in favour of an economic system based on individual self-interest that would be led, as if by an “invisible hand,” to achieve the greatest good for all, and pos¬ ited the division of labour as the chief factor in economic growth. A reac¬ tion to the system of mercantilism then current, it stands as the beginning of classical economics. The Wealth of Nations in time won him an enor¬ mous reputation and would become virtually the most influential work on economics ever published. Though often regarded as the bible of capital¬ ism, it is harshly critical of the shortcomings of unrestrained free enter¬ prise and monopoly. In 1777 Smith was appointed commissioner of customs for Scotland, and in 1787 rector of the University of Glasgow.
Smith, Alfred E(manuel) (b. Dec. 30, 1873, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Oct. 4, 1944, New York City) U.S. politician. After working in the Fulton fish market to help support his family, he began his political career with a job from Tammany Hall (1895). In the state assembly (1903- 15), he rose to speaker, then served in city political posts. As governor of New York (1919-20, 1923-28) he worked for improved housing, child welfare, and efficient government. In 1928 he won the presidential nomi¬ nation of the Democratic Party, the first Roman Catholic to do so, but he was easily defeated by Herbert Hoover. He later opposed the New Deal
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1770 I Smith, Bessie ► Smith, Joseph
programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt and supported Republican presidential candidates for president in 1936 and 1940.
Smith, Bessie orig. Elizabeth Smith (b. April 15, 1898?, Chatta¬ nooga, Tenn., U.S.— d. Sept. 26, 1937, Clarksdale, Miss.) U.S. blues and jazz singer. Smith sang popular songs as well as blues on the minstrel and vaudeville stage. She began recording in 1923 and appeared in the film St. Louis Blues (1929). Her interpretations represent the fully realized transition of the rural folk tradition of the blues to its urbane structure and expressiveness. A bold, supremely confident artist with a powerful voice and precise diction, she became known as “Empress of the Blues.” Smith was the most successful African American entertainer of her time. She died from injuries sustained in a car crash, and it was said that, had she been white, she would have received earlier medical treatment and her life might have been saved; the actual circumstances of her treatment remain obscure.
Smith, Cyril Stanley (b. Oct. 4, 1903, Birmingham, Warwickshire, Eng.—d. Aug. 25, 1992, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.) British-born U.S. met¬ allurgist. He worked as a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the American Brass Co. before joining the Man¬ hattan Project, where he determined the properties and technology of plu¬ tonium and uranium, the essential materials of the atomic bomb. He later taught at the University of Chicago (1946-61) and MIT (1961-69). He published many books on the history of metallurgy, including A History of Metallography (1960).
Smith, David (Roland) (b. March 9, 1906, Decatur, Ind., U.S.—d. May 23, 1965, Albany, N.Y.) U.S. sculptor. He learned to work with metal while employed at an automobile plant. In 1926 he went to New York City and took various jobs while studying painting at the Art Students League. His sculptures grew out of his abstract paintings, to which he attached so many bits of wood, metal, and found objects that they became virtual bases for sculptural superstructures. He became the first U.S. art¬ ist to make welded metal sculpture. In 1940 he moved to Bolton Land¬ ing, N.Y., and there made his large yet seemingly weightless metal sculptures until his death in a car crash. His abstract biomorphic and geo¬ metric forms are remarkable for their erratic inventiveness, stylistic diver¬ sity, and high aesthetic quality. His work greatly influenced Minimalist sculpture in the 1960s.
Smith, Emmitt (b. May 15, 1969, Pensacola, Fla., U.S.) U.S. football player. He set 58 school football records at the University of Florida, and as a running back for the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL (1990-2002), he helped his team win three Super Bowl games. In 1995 he set the all-time NFL record for touchdowns in a single season (25), and he holds the record for most career rushing touchdowns (164). In 2002 he surpassed Walter Payton to become the NFL’s all-time leading rusher. He played two seasons with the Arizona Cardinals and retired in 2004 with 18,355 career rushing yards.
Smith, Frederick Edwin See Earl of Birkenhead
Smith, George (b. March 19, 1824, London, Eng.—d. April 6, 1901, Byfleet, near Weybridge, Surrey) British publisher. He took over his father’s bookselling and publishing business in 1846. Under his leader¬ ship the firm issued works by such noted Victorian writers as John Ruskin, the Bronte sisters, Charles Darwin, William Thackeray, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Wilkie Collins, Matthew Arnold, Harriet Martineau, and Anthony Trollope. His most important publication was the first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography, 66 vol. (1885-1901), later contin¬ ued by Oxford University Press. He also began the illustrated literary journal Cornhill Magazine (1860) and the Pall Mall Gazette (1865), a literary newspaper.
Smith, Gerrit (b. March 6, 1797, Utica, N.Y., U.S.—d. Dec. 28, 1874, New York, N.Y.) U.S. reformer and philanthropist. Bom into a wealthy family, he became active in the temperance movement (1828) and built one of the first U.S. temperance hotels at Peterboro, N.Y. From 1835 he was an active abolitionist, and he made his hotel a stop on the Under¬ ground Railroad. He helped form the Liberty Party and was its unsuc¬ cessful presidential candidate in 1848 and 1852. He paid the legal expenses of many slaves arrested under the Fugitive Slave Acts. He gave a farm to his friend John Brown and financed some of Brown’s activities.
Smith, Hamilton O(thanel) (b. Aug. 23, 1931, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. microbiologist. He received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University. While studying the mechanism whereby the bacterium Hae¬
mophilus influenzae takes up DNA from a particular bacteriophage, Smith, Werner Arber, and Daniel Nathans discovered the first of what came to be called type II restriction enzymes. Whereas previously studied restriction enzymes cut DNA at unpredictable points, the type II enzymes’ predict¬ ability allowed the scientists to cut DNA at a particular point. The enzymes have become valuable tools in the study of DNA structure and in recombinant DNA technology. The three shared a 1978 Nobel Prize.