Sardou

sar-doo' (1831-), a French dramatist. He was born at Paris. He began to study medicine, but, owing to lack of funds, gave it up and became a tutor, giving instruction in philosophy, mathematics, and history. He soon began writing for periodicals and encyclopedias. His first drama was a failure, but he has since won popularity in comedy and in almost every variety of the drama except tragedy. Fedora, Theodora, La Tosca, and Cleopatre were written for Sarah Bernhardt. Robespierre was written for Sir Henry Irving. Other titles are Odette, Madame Sans-Gene, and Marcelle. Sardou's comedies are full of wit, often taking the form of satire on contemporaneous characters and conditions, and are characterized by variety of action and episode. They have little literary merit.

Sargasso (sar-gas'o) Sea, a huge eddy in the North Atlantic. It reaches in a belt from the Azores to the Bahamas. It has an area equaling that of Europe. A large part of the tract is strewn with a peculiar Gulf weed, really an alga, which is kept afloat by air sacks. It is uncertain whether this alga comes from the coast of Florida and the Bahamas, or whether it is a plant peculiar to the surface of the deep sea. The "weed" is dense enough in places to obstruct the passage of ships. The Sargasso is full of animal life. There are crabs, sea snails, and many smaller marine animals. Certain fishes spawn here. The sailors of Columbus were much frightened, it may be remembered, when they entered the Sargasso Sea. A similar area of weeds exists in the Pacific and still another in the Indian Ocean.