SYRINGE

In Hydraulics, a machine consisting of a small cylinder with an air-tight piston or sucker, which is moved up and down in it by means of a handle. The lower end of the cylinder terminates in a small tube, through which a fluid is forced into the body of the cylinder by the atmospheric pre ure when the handle is drawn up, and then expelled in a small jet by pushing the handle in the opposite direction. The syringe acts on the principle of the sucking pump. The syringe is also used as a pneumatic machine for condensing or exhausting the air in a close ve el, but for this purpose it must be furnished with two valves. In the condensing syringe, the valves open downwards and close upwards; in the exhausting syringe they are closed downwards and opened upwards. See Air Gun and Air Pump. SYRMA. {Gr. av^fjkM, from trveu, I draw.) A long garment; so called from its train reaching the ground. It was the proper dre of actors in the cla ical tragedy. [s. 1216]