SALAMANDER, an elemental spirit conceived in the Middle Ages as an animal that lived in the fire as its proper element.

SALAMIS, a mountainous island of Greece, on the NW. coast of Attica, the strait between which and the mainland was the scene of a naval victory over the armament of Xerxes by the combined fleets of Athens, Sparta, and Corinth in 480 B.C.

SALDANHA OLIVEIRA E DAUN JOAO CARLOS, DUKE OF, Portuguese statesman and soldier, played an honourable and patriotic part in many wars and crises of his country, notably in Brazil in the struggle between Dom Pedro and Dom Miguel, and during his occupancy of the Premiership on three several occasions between 1846-70; proved a mild constitutionalist, and enjoyed the confidence and support of England; was created a duke in 1846 (1790-1876).

SALE, GEORGE, Orientalist, born in Kent, and bred for the bar, contributed to the “Universal History” and the “General Dictionary,” but is best known as the translator of the “Koran,” with a preliminary dissertation and notes; he left a body of MSS. behind him (1690-1736).

SALE, SIR ROBERT HENRY, British general; saw a great deal of fighting; was distinguished in the Burmese War of 1824-25, and in the war against Afghanistan in 1834, in both of which he was wounded, and afterwards in the latter country during 1841-42; he was killed at the battle of Mudki fighting against the Sikhs (1782-1865).

SALEM, 1, a city (36) and seaport of the United States, founded in 1626 on a peninsula in Massachusetts Bay, 15 m.  NE. of Boston; its foreign trade has fallen away, but a good coasting trade is done in ice and coal; manufactures include cottons, jutes, shoes, &c. 2, Capital (5) of Oregon, on the Willamette River, 720 m.  N. of San Francisco.

SALERNO (22), a city of South Italy, on a gulf of the name, 33 m.  SE. of Naples; has some fine Gothic buildings, notably the cathedral of St. Matthew; had a European fame in the Middle Ages for its medical school and university, closed in 1817; cotton-spinning is the chief industry; in the neighbourhood are the ruins of Paestum and an old Norman castle.

SALETTE, LA, a French village amid Alpine scenery, 28 m.  SE. of Grenoble; has become a place of pilgrimage, since the alleged appearance of the Virgin to two peasant children on 19th September 1846.

SALFORD (198), a suburb of Manchester, with cotton factories and iron-works, and with Manchester forms the second largest city in England.

SALIC LAW, a law which obtained among the Salian Franks, as also in certain German States, which excluded females from succession to the throne.

SALICYLIC ACID, produced in commercial quantities from carbolic acid; is a white crystalline powder, soluble in water, odourless, of a sweetish acid taste; largely used as an external antiseptic, and internally in the form of salicylate of sodium as a febrifuge and cure for acute rheumatism.